Mohamed Al Fayed, who feminine former staff accused of sexual assault in a BBC investigation this week, was flamboyant, extrovert and a thorn within the aspect of the royal household.
That at present, a 12 months after his demise on the age of 94, he’s nonetheless making headlines displays a life a lot mired in controversy.
A scrapper who by no means shied away from a combat, he took on the Home of Windsor, the Home of Commons with the “money for questions” scandal, and enterprise rivals.
He could have been the proprietor of Harrods, arguably Britain’s most prestigious retailer, and purchased a slice of British cultural life with possession of Fulham FC and the satirical journal Punch, however he died by no means having gained the one factor he desperately craved: citizenship, and with it full acceptance into British society.
His most high-profile conflict was towards the royals and the “institution” over the demise of his beloved son Dodi alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in a 1997 Paris automobile crash whereas being pushed by Henri Paul, a Fayed worker who was over the alcohol restrict.
Grief-stricken, Fayed launched into an embittered and vengeful marketing campaign. Dodi, he claimed, had informed him the princess was pregnant and the couple had been to be engaged. There was no proof, and it undoubtedly prompted unimaginable misery to her bereaved household and buddies.
He would persist, too, for 10 years with allegations that Diana, Dodi and Paul had been “murdered” in an act orchestrated by MI6 on the directions of the late Duke of Edinburgh and involving the previous prime minister Tony Blair.
“I’m a father who misplaced his son,” he informed the coroner conducting the inquests into the deaths. “I’m combating unbelievable forces. However together with your energy as a choose, it’s a must to drive MI6 to open their field and discover the end result.” The coroner dismissed claims of a “plot” as having “not a shred of proof” to help them.
Born in Alexandria, Egypt, the son of a college inspector, Fayed rose from promoting lemonade and stitching machines to working for the Saudi businessman and arms supplier Adnan Khashoggi, advising the Sultan of Brunei and launching his personal transport enterprise.
He was already rich when he moved to Britain within the Seventies, intent on constructing a enterprise empire. In 1979, along with his brother Ali, Fayed purchased the Paris Ritz resort.
He set his sights on Harrods, changing into locked in a bitter battle with “Tiny” Rowland, the enterprise tycoon and head of the mining conglomerate Lonrho. Fayed received, although Rowland later accused him of breaking into his security deposit field on the division retailer, claims that led to Fayed, together with others, being arrested in March 1998 however by no means charged.
Fayed purchased Fulham FC, taking up the Division Two membership 1997, along with his spending on gamers and managers together with Kevin Keegan and Roy Hodgson seeing them rise to the Premier League. Followers had been bemused, nonetheless, when, in 2011, two years after Michael Jackson’s demise, Fayed erected a statue of his pop singer pal on the Craven Cottage floor. When he bought the membership in 2013 it was taken down.
In politics, he was on the centre of the 1994 “money for questions” scandal, with claims he had paid the then Tory MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith hundreds of kilos to illegally desk questions within the Commons on his behalf. Hamilton sued for libel and misplaced. The cupboard minister Jonathan Aitken was one other scalp, pressured to resign after the Harrods boss revealed he had been staying free on the Ritz in Paris similtaneously Saudi arms sellers. Aitken was later jailed for perjury after libel proceedings towards the Guardian.
British citizenship continued to elude him, regardless of having 4 British youngsters by his second spouse, paying tens of millions in tax, giving tens of millions to charities corresponding to Nice Ormond Avenue hospital, and financing movies, together with Chariots of Fireplace. “Why received’t they offer me a passport? I personal Harrods and make use of hundreds of individuals on this nation,” he requested.
Turning down his second utility in 1999, the then Labour house secretary, Jack Straw, determined Fayed had a “common defect in his character”, citing the protection deposit field and “money for questions” controversies.
Fayed was first accused of sexual abuse within the late Nineteen Eighties, however the allegations didn’t result in felony prices. In 2009, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), then led by Keir Starmer, elected to not prosecute him after claims he had sexually assaulted a 15-year-old woman in Harrods. He denied all allegations towards him and attended a voluntary police interview.
Claims of sexual misconduct towards the billionaire businessman had been the topic of items by Self-importance Honest in 1995, ITV in 1997 and Channel 4 in 2017.
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