Mohamed Al-Fayed

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Person.png Mohamed Al-Fayed   Powerbase WikiquoteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(businessman)
Mohamed Al-Fayed.jpg
In 2011
BornMohamed Fayed
27 January 1929
Alexandria, Egypt
Died30 August 2023 (Age 94)
London, UK, Europe
ResidenceUK
NationalityEgyptian
Children • Dodi Fayed
• Omar Fayed
Spouse • Samira Khashoggi
• Heini Wathén
UK-Egyptian businessman with ties to Adnan Khashoggi. After the the death of his son Dodi Fayed and Diana Spencer, he claimed that the car crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Mohamed Al-Fayed is an Egyptian-born businessman whose residence and chief business interests have been in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s.

His deep state connected business career started when he became brother-in-law of the Saudi Arabian arms dealer and deep state actor Adnan Khashoggi. He became known as the father-in-law of Diana Spencer. After the the death of his son Dodi Fayed and Diana, he claimed that the car crash was orchestrated by MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

Activities

Full article: Diana Spencer/Premature death

Mohamed Al-Fayed funded production of a film, Unlawful Killing which addresses the untimely death of his son and Lady Diana and Henri Paul, focusing on the irregular legal proceedings surrounding the event.[1]

Background

Fayed was born in Roshdy, Alexandria, Egypt, the eldest son of an Egyptian primary school teacher.[2]

Fayed was married from 1954 to 1956 to Samira Khashoggi. He worked with his wife's brother, Saudi Arabian arms dealer and deep state actor Adnan Khashoggi.[3]

Career

Fayed and his brothers founded a shipping company in Egypt before moving its headquarters to Genoa, Italy with offices in London.

Around 1964 he entered a close relationship with Haitian leader François Duvalier, known as 'Papa Doc', and became interested in the construction of a Fayed-Duvalier oil refinery in Haiti. He also associated with the geologist George de Mohrenschildt. Fayed terminated his stay in Haiti six months later when a sample of "crude oil" provided by Haitian associates proved to be low-grade molasses.[4]

Fayed then moved to England, where he lived in central London.[5] In the mid-1960s, he met the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who entrusted him with helping transform Dubai, where he set up IMS (International Marine Services) in 1968.[6] Fayed introduced British companies like the Costain Group (of which he became a director and 30% shareholder[3]), Bernard Sunley & Sons and Taylor Woodrow to the emirate to carry out the required construction work.[7][5] He also became a financial adviser to the then Sultan of Brunei Omar Ali Saifuddien III in 1966.[3]

Fayed briefly joined the board of the mining conglomerate Lonrho in 1975 but left after a disagreement.

In 1979, he bought The Ritz hotel in Paris, France for US$30 million.[8]

In 1984, Fayed and his brothers purchased a 30% stake in House of Fraser, a group that included the London store Harrods, from Roland 'Tiny' Rowland, the head of Lonrho. In 1985, he and his brothers bought the remaining 70% of House of Fraser for £615m. Rowland claimed that the Fayed brothers lied about their background and wealth and he put pressure on the government to investigate them. A Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) inquiry into the Fayeds was launched. The DTI's subsequent report was critical, but no action was taken against the Fayeds, and while many believed the contents of the report, others felt it was politically motivated.[9] Rowland described his relationship with the Fayed family in his book A Hero from Zero.[10] He started with the following words:

In Spring 1985, the three Fayed brothers acquired House of Fraser. They did so despite detailed allegations by Lonrho as to their unsavoury character and the fabrications as to their origins and wealth which they had invented to present themselves in a falsely favourable light.

The rest of the book set out to justify these statements.

In 1998, Rowland accused Fayed of stealing papers and jewels from his Harrods safe deposit box. Fayed was arrested, but the charges were dropped.[11] Rowland died in 1998. Fayed settled the dispute with a payment to his widow; he also sued the Metropolitan Police for false arrest in 2002, but lost the case.[12] In 1994, House of Fraser went public, but Fayed retained the private ownership of Harrods.

Al-Fayed unsuccessfully applied for British citizenship twice, in 1994 and 1999.[13][14] It was suggested that his feud with Rowland contributed to the first refusal.[15]

Sexual harassment allegations

Al-Fayed has been accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and assault.[16][17] That corporate media chose to write about these allegations, might have to to with a backlash against his public claims that the MI6 on the instructions of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh murdered his son.

Young women applying for employment at Harrods were often submitted to HIV tests and gynaecological examinations.[18] They were then selected to spend the weekend with Al-Fayed in Paris.[18] In her profile of Al-Fayed for Vanity Fair, Maureen Orth described how, according to former employees, "Fayed regularly walked the store on the lookout for young, attractive women to work in his office. Those who rebuffed him would often be subjected to crude, humiliating comments about their appearance or dress... A dozen ex-employees I spoke with said that Fayed would chase secretaries around the office and sometimes try to stuff money down women's blouses".[19]

In December 1997, the ITV current affairs programme The Big Story broadcast testimonies from a number of former Harrods employees who spoke of how Al-Fayed routinely sexually harassed women in similar ways.[20]

Al-Fayed was interviewed under caution by the Metropolitan Police after an allegation of sexual assault against a 15-year-old schoolgirl in October 2008. The case was dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service when they found there was no realistic chance of conviction due to conflicting statements.[21]

A December 2017 episode of Channel 4's Dispatches programme alleged that Al-Fayed sexually harassed three Harrods employees, and attempted to "groom" them. One of the women was 17 at the time. Cheska Hill-Wood waived her right to anonymity to be interviewed for the programme.[22] The programme alleged Al-Fayed targeted young employees over a 13-year period.[23]


 

Related Documents

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:Tiny Rowland – portrait of the bastard as a rebelArticleAugust 1990Nick DaviesAll big entrepreneurs have the stink of unpopularity around them. Whether it is through envy or sincere distaste, Donald Trump, James Goldsmith, Rupert Murdoch, Robert Maxwell and Richard Branson have all become popular figures of hate. The one characteristic that has marked out Tiny Rowland is his lack of respect for authority.
Document:Pulsed Strobe LTL Weapon at the London Ritz Hotelwebpage12 February 2002Joe Vialls
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References

  1. ↑ http://www.unwelcomeguests.net/680
  2. ↑ Who's Who. London: A & C Black. 2008. ISBN 978-0-7136-8555-8.
  3. ↑ a b c https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220515/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/mohamed-alfayed-the-outsider-396133.html
  4. ↑ Tunzelmann, Alex (29 March 2011). Red Heat: Conspiracy, Murder and the Cold War in the Caribbean. Henry Holt and Co., 2011. p. 330f. ISBN 978-0-8050-9067-3.
  5. ↑ a b https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mohamed-al-fayed-the-outsider-with-a-taste-for-confrontation-n9tsq2qp8z0
  6. ↑ Salihovic, Elnur (5 October 2015). Major Players in the Muslim Business World. Universal Publishers. pp. 117–118. ISBN 9781627340526.
  7. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1985/09/08/business/harrod-s-new-owner-mohamed-al-fayed-a-quiet-acquisitor-is-caught-in-a-cross-fire.html
  8. ↑ Boxer, Mark (1991). The Paris Ritz. New York: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-01427-1.
  9. ↑ Buckingham, Lisa (5 June 1997). "Finance: DTI inquiries under attack". The Guardian.
  10. ↑ R. W. Rowland (1998). A Hero from Zero. Greenaway Harrison, London.
  11. ↑ https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/136111.stm
  12. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/aug/14/jamiewilson
  13. ↑ https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/55867.stm
  14. ↑ https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220515/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/law-report-minister-acted-unfairly-towards-the-fayeds-1353132.html
  15. ↑ https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7248639.stm
  16. ↑ "http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1998/oct/24/hamiltonvalfayed |title=Crossing swords with Mohamed
  17. ↑ https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220515/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/al-fayed-accused-harrods-boss-rejects-charges-of-lechery-and-bugging-1289749.html
  18. ↑ a b Bower, Tom (1998). Fayed: The Unauthorized Biography. Macmillan. pp. 271–72. ISBN 978-0-333-74554-0.
  19. ↑ https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1995/9/holy-war-at-harrods
  20. ↑ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/al-fayed-accused-harrods-boss-rejects-charges-of-lechery-and-bugging-1289749.html
  21. ↑ https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7894870.stm
  22. ↑ https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/08/mohamed-al-fayed-accused-harassing-17-year-old-harrods-employee/
  23. ↑ https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mohamed-al-fayed-accused-of-sexually-harassing-young-staff-688twtk2v
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