Mohamed Al-Fayed

Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed (27 January 1929 – 30 August 2023) was an Egyptian businessman who lived in the UK from the mid-1960s and owned the Hôtel Ritz Paris, Harrods, and Fulham Football Club. Forbes estimated his net worth at $2 billion when he died in 2023. After his death, numerous women accused him of sexual harassment and assault.

Starting in 1995, Al-Fayed faced media investigations into claims he enforced sexist and discriminatory practices at Harrods, along with sexual harassment and assault allegations. Early reporting on these misconduct claims was limited because he often threatened to sue. He became known for spending heavily on lawsuits against news outlets that reported sexual assault allegations against him. In 2024, a year after his death, more than 200 women had made complaints of illegal activity, including rape accusations.

Al-Fayed was married to Samira Khashoggi from 1954 to 1956. They had a son, Dodi, who died alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in a 1997 Paris car crash while they were in a romantic relationship. Al-Fayed claimed MI6 orchestrated the crash on orders from Prince Philip. In 2011, he funded the unreleased documentary *Unlawful Killing*, which promoted his version of events.

**Early life**

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, on 27 January 1929, Al-Fayed was the eldest son of a primary school teacher from Asyut. His birth year was disputed, but a 1988 Department of Trade investigation confirmed it. His brothers Ali and Salah were his business partners.

At 19, he sold Coca-Cola on Alexandria’s streets; by 21, he sold Singer sewing machines. In 1952, he worked for a friend, Tousson El Barrawi, and 17-year-old Adnan Khashoggi in their furniture import business. He excelled, impressing Adnan’s father, the Saudi king’s personal physician. In the early 1950s, he first traveled to Europe, visiting France, Italy, and Switzerland. Back in Egypt, he admitted an affair to his wife, Samira (Adnan’s sister), who demanded a divorce. He ended his partnership with Adnan and secretly withdrew £100,000 from Adnan’s Al Nasr trading company. Adnan sued for the money’s return but later forgave the debt and other loans in exchange for Samira’s freedom to remarry and return to Egypt.

After Egyptian President Nasser threatened to expropriate foreign businesses, Al-Fayed took over a small shipping company from Leon Carasso, who wanted to emigrate. Carasso later said Al-Fayed didn’t pay the agreed amount. Al-Fayed also bought interests in other transport companies at low prices. When Nasser ordered confiscation of Egyptian property in 1961, Al-Fayed moved his Middle Eastern Navigation Company to Genoa, Italy.

On 12 June 1964, Al-Fayed arrived in Haiti, then ruled by François “Papa Doc” Duvalier, using a Kuwaiti passport and calling himself Sheikh Mohamed Fayed. Soon after, Duvalier canceled a US company’s ten-year monopoly on Haiti’s oil industry and signed a 50-year contract with Al-Fayed. Al-Fayed also worked with geologist George de Mohrenschildt. He left six months later when a “crude oil” sample turned out to be low-grade molasses. He promised to use Dubai connections to bring investment if allowed to build an oil refinery and develop Port-au-Prince’s wharf. He gained exclusive control over docking fees at the main port, angering Haitian shippers. Duvalier demanded $30,000 from him, but Al-Fayed refused, and fearing growing hostility, he left Haiti in December 1964. He later claimed the Haitian government owed him $2 million. A 1988 UK Department of Trade report stated Al-Fayed “perpetrated a substantial deceit” on Haiti, depriving its harbor authority of over $100,000.

He then moved to London, settling in the city center.

**Career in Dubai**

In London’s Arab expatriate community, Al-Fayed met Iraqi businessman Salim Abu Alwan, who introduced him to Mahdi Al Tajir, an adviser to Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum of Dubai. Oil was about to be discovered there, transforming the emirate’s wealth.

Tajir told Al-Fayed that Dubai was broke and needed a £1 million loan for modern harbor facilities. Al-Fayed secured a £9 million loan from American lawyer Imre Rochlitz. Rochlitz’s Jewish background embarrassed Tajir and later led Rochlitz to reject Al-Fayed’s partnership offer. Al-Fayed earned a £1.5 million commission from a contract with British engineering firm Costain to build the port. He also helped secure financing for the Dubai World Trade Centre, with banker David Douglas-Home of Morgan Grenfell managing the deal.