Labour lord's associates in fraud probe

Americium currently pays Moonie, a close ally of Gordon Brown, up to £40,000 a year in consultancy fees. The peer's relationship with the company dates back to October 2006.

Two of Americium's US clients have told the Sunday Herald they had lunch with Moonie and Nawrot at Westminster and that the peer later gave a tour of the parliament.

One client said he discussed a potential NHS contract with Moonie at the lunch.

The contract is now the focus of the fraud investigation. Also arrested and bailed last month was John Abbott, a former NHS procurement manager.

Moonie, 61, a former defence minister who was ennobled in July 2005, was not arrested, and there is no indication he is the subject of police inquiries.

However the arrest of his business associates will raise fresh questions about peers having outside financial interests.

Approached by the Sunday Herald at his Kirkcaldy home yesterday, Moonie shouted: "Get off my property now, or I call the police."

A woman at the house subsequently accepted a letter asking Moonie for an interview but he did not respond.

Last month, Moonie was one of four peers named as willing to take money in exchange for helping to amend legislation in the Lords.

The police this week confirmed the four would not face charges.

The Sunday Herald also revealed this month that around half the written questions Moonie has tabled in the Lords relate to work done by the US defence giant Northrop Grumman.

Moonie is an adviser to one of the firm's American divisions, Northrop Grumman IT.

The current fraud inquiry concerns the relationship between Americium, the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust, now known as the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and an American technology company called CombineMed.

Pittsburgh-based CombineMed was formed in 2006 as spin-off of its parent company CombineNet and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre (UPMC).

Tom Finn, CombineMed's former president, told the Sunday Herald he met Moonie and Nawrot at Westminster in "spring 2007", and was then taken by the peer on a tour of the parliament.

He said: "I had lunch with Lord Moonie, along with Richard Nawrot of Americium and Tony Bonidy, the CEO of CombineNet.

"We were taken around some interesting rooms. Mr Moonie was very gracious in terms of saying how in this room, such and such occurred."

A spokesman for Bonidy said: "Tony is unsure of the date, but he does remember having lunch with Lord Moonie and Richard Nawrot at Westminster.

"There was a tour after lunch; the impressiveness of Westminster would be difficult to forget."

In April 2007, CombineMed beat 36 other companies to supply the Hammersmith Trust with a more efficient procurement system.

The deal was potentially worth tens of millions of pounds to CombineMed, as the system could have been rolled out across the NHS.

Asked whether his company's attempt to win the Hammersmith contract was discussed at the Moonie lunch, Bonidy's spokesman said: "In the normal course of discussion, Tony spoke about the capabilities of CombineMed's technology to help reduce costs at the NHS, and about the opportunity at Hammersmith. No influence or assistance was requested or suggested."

In a separate statement issued last week in America, Bonidy said CombineMed had "retained Americium to assist it in introducing our offering to these hospitals and navigating the procurement process."

He also confirmed that at the same time it was helping CombineMed, Americium was also working for the NHS Trust, and one of its directors sat on the Trust's five-member vetting committee which awarded CombineMed the contract.

"One representative of Americium had particular knowledge of Hammersmith's procurement process needs; Hammersmith invited him to serve on a five member panel assisting Hammersmith in the procurement process relating to sourcing technology," he said.

Bonidy also told a Pittsburgh news paper the Trust "put them Americium on this committee with full disclosure that Americium was doing work with UPMC in other areas and with us in this are, so everybody on this committee knew there could be a potential conflict of interest there. That's a business choice that Hammersmith had to make. As long as it's fully disclosed, everybody's aware of it."

Bonidy said that after four CombineMed staff raised concerns about the Hammersmith process, an independent law firm investigated the matter and concluded "that the concerns with without merit".

He said: "The NHS has initiated its own investigation of Americium and its principals. CombineMed is not the target of that investigation and intends to cooperate fully."

The NHS Trust has now cancelled its contract with CombineMed and severed its links to Americium.

The House of Lords register of interests records that Moonie first began "parliamentary lobbying" for "Americium Developments, Edinburgh" in October 2006 for between £30,000 and £35,000 per year.

Since then, his total pay pro rata has amounted to between £77,500 and £89,000.

On February 4, three weeks after the arrest of Nawrot and Henderson, Moonie reaffirmed his relationship with Americium, but changed the nature of the work to "non-parliamentary consultant".

According to Companies House, Americium Developments Ltd and Americium Developments (Edi) Ltd were both incorporated in 2002, with Nawrot and Henderson as their founding directors.

The pair remain the sole directors of Americium Developments Ltd, although Americium Developments (Edi) Ltd currently has a third director resident in California.

Henderson is the secretary and Nawrot the sole shareholder of both firms.

Initially run from an office in Edinburgh, they are now registered at an accountants in Strathmiglo in Fife.

Henderson, 55, from Edinburgh, was expelled from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in January 2006 after he was found guilty of three charges including failing to inform them his professional indemnity insurance had expired.

He did not return calls. When the Sunday Herald visited his home in Edinburgh on Thursday, a woman said she did not know where he was or when he would be back but agreed to give a letter to him.

He did not respond.

Nawrot, 54, did not respond to the Sunday Herald's calls. His home in the Fife village of Leslie appeared deserted yesterday.

According to legal records seen by the Sunday Herald, Nawrot has a chequered business career going back almost 20 years. In 1990, Diners Club was granted a winding up order against Kaiser Bautechnick Ltd of Glenrothes over a debt of £44,500.

Nawrot was a director at the time.

In 1994, Napier University Ventures Ltd obtained interdicts against two other companies of which Nawrot was a director, ASL Sterling and See Consultancy, to stop them infringing the copyright on its software.

A year later, Scottish Enterprise, the government's jobs quango, was granted a petition to wind up ASL Sterling over a debt of more than £25,000.

A spokeswoman for Imperial College NHS trust said: "John Abbott no longer works for the Trust. We no longer have a working relationship with either CombineMed or Americium. We cannot comment further while the criminal investigation is ongoing."

The NHS Counter Fraud Service declined to comment.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: "Three men were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit fraud and misconduct in a public office, in connection with allegations of corruption and conspiracy to defraud an NHS Trust.

"The three men arrested were bailed to return in July to a central London police station."

A spokeswoman for UPMC confirmed they had retained Americium in April 2007 "to help us with business development activities in the UK. Recently, Americium and UPMC mutually agreed that Americium would suspend those activities until further notice, as we continue to monitor the investigation by the British authorities. We are, however, continuing to honor our contract with Americium."

Asked if UPMC had been aware that an Americium representative had also been on the tender panel that awarded the Hammersmith contract, she said: "To the best of my knowledge the answer is yes. And perhaps most importantly this was at Hammersmith's request and with its knowledge."