Following a test case brought by HMRC against Rangers F.C., the employee benefit trust (the type of tax avoidance scheme used by MJM International) was ruled illegal in November 2015. Mone threatened to sue her critics when it was revealed her company MJM International had paid a substantial sum of money into a controversial tax avoidance scheme, criticised by Chancellor George Osborne as 'morally repugnant'. In 2014, a former operations director for MJM won a claim for unfair dismissal from her company after discovering that Mone had authorised electronic bugging of his office. Ultimo went on to include other products, such as backless dresses and shapewear, which led to MJM International's growth. Mone has claimed that an Ultimo bra was worn by Julia Roberts in the Hollywood movie, Erin Brockovich, but this was refuted by the film's creators. Mone had read about a new silicone product while on holiday in Florida and approached the company to obtain its European licence to produce bras. Mone came up with the idea for the Ultimo bra, the brand's first product when she was wearing an uncomfortable cleavage-enhancing bra one day and believed she could create a more comfortable cleavage-enhancing bra. In August 1999, Mone launched the Ultimo lingerie brand at Selfridges department store in London. In November 1996 she founded MJM International with her then-husband Michael. She was then made redundant by the company, prompting her to set up her own business, and has since admitted that she invented qualifications on her CV to obtain the job. Mone obtained a marketing job with the Labatt brewing company and, within two years, had risen to become its head of marketing in Scotland.

Baroness has it leaked