Mohamed Fayed

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Mohamed Fayed
A waxwork model of Mohamed Fayed stands in his store welcoming customers
Born	January 27, 1933 (1933-01-27) (age 75) Alexandria, Egypt
Spouse	Heini Wathén

Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed (Arabic: محمد الفايد‎) (born January 27, 1933) is a billionaire Egyptian businessman. Amongst his business interests is ownership of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge and the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club. He relaunched the humour publication Punch in 1996 but it folded again in 2002.

He has two brothers; Ali Fayed and Salah Fayed. Since 1985 he has been married to Finnish socialite and former model Heini Wathén, and has four living children: Jasmine (who has one child, Delilah), Karim, Camilla and Omar. A fifth child, Dodi, from Al Fayed's first marriage, died in a car accident in Paris in 1997, along with Diana, Princess of Wales and Henri Paul, the driver of the car and employee of the Fayed-owned Hôtel Ritz Paris.

1 Biography
2 Dodi Fayed's death
3 Fulham FC
4 Organizations owned or involved in
5 Books and television
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Biography

Born in Bakos (باكوس), a neighbourhood in eastern Alexandria, Egypt, as the eldest son of a primary school teacher, Fayed tried a number of jobs, from selling soft drinks on the streets of his home city as a child to working as a sewing machine salesman and teacher.

He was married for two years to Samira Kashoggi (1955 - 1956), the sister of the international businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who employed him in his import business in Saudi Arabia. After establishing wide circles of influence in the UAE, Haiti and London, Fayed founded his own shipping company in Egypt before becoming a financial adviser to one of the world's richest men, the then Sultan of Brunei Omar Ali Saifuddien III, in 1966.

He arrived in Britain in 1974 and added the al- to his name in an attempt to make himself look more important however this backfired, earning the Private Eye nickname "the Phoney Pharaoh". He briefly joined the board of the mining conglomerate Lonrho in 1975 but left after a disagreement. In 1985, he married Wathén, his second wife.

In 1979, Fayed bought the Hôtel Ritz Paris, and restored it to its former glory for which he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (Légion d’Honneur) by the then President of France, François Mitterrand.

In 1985, he and his brother Ali Fayed bought House of Fraser, a group that included the famous London store Harrods, for £615m. The Harrods deal was made under the nose of Roland 'Tiny' Rowland, the head of Lonrho. Rowland had been seeking to buy Harrods and took the Fayed brothers to a Department of Trade inquiry. The inquiry, involving one of the most bitter feuds in British business history, issued a 1990 report stating that the Fayed brothers had lied about their background and wealth. The bickering with Rowland continued when he accused them of stealing millions in jewels from his Harrods safe deposit box. Rowland died in 1998, and, without accepting responsibility, Al Fayed settled the dispute with a payment to his widow. (Al Fayed had been arrested during the dispute and sued the Metropolitan Police for false arrest in 2002. He lost the case.)

In 1994, House of Fraser went public, but Fayed retained private ownership of Harrods.

For years, Fayed unsuccessfully sought British citizenship. Both Labour and Conservative Home Secretaries repeatedly rejected his applications on the grounds that he was not of good character. He took the matter to court, but failed. It has been suggested that the feud contributed to Fayed's being refused British citizenship the first time.^[1]

Mohamed Fayed was involved in the cash for questions scandal, having offered money for questions in the commons to the Conservative MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith. Both left the government in disgrace.^[2] Fayed also revealed that the cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken had stayed for free at the Ritz Hotel in Paris at the same time as a group of Saudi arms dealers leading to Aitken's subsequent unsuccessful libel case and imprisonment for perjury.^[3]

[edit] Dodi Fayed's death

Fayed's eldest son, Dodi had a close relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales. Both of them died in a Paris car crash on 31 August 1997. Fayed has since made repeated allegations that the deaths were not accidental but rather the result of a wide-ranging conspiracy. The specific people involved vary in Al Fayed's numerous accounts.

Fayed repeated these claims at the inquest into the death of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed on February 18, 2008, claiming that the late Princess "knew Prince Philip and Prince Charles were trying to get rid of her". MI6 and most of the British and French establishments, with the sole exception of the Queen, were also implicated, he claimed. The 1997 accident he called "hot murder".^[4]

In a brief exchange outside the court, he said to the BBC's Royal Correspondent Peter Hunt: "I am not speaking to you because you are an idiot. You are from the establishment. You are from MI6, you idiot".^{[citation needed]}

His testimony was roundly condemned in the press as being farcical and led to members of the British Government's Intelligence and Security committee including George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock and Dari Taylor to accuse him of turning the Inquest into a 'circus' and calls for it to be ended prematurely.^[5]

In 1998, Fayed helped found The New School at West Heath as a tribute to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, contributing almost £3m of his own money.^{[citation needed]}

During his summing up at the inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi, the coroner stated: "The conspiracy theory advanced by Mohamed Fayed has been minutely examined and shown to be without any substance".^[6]. As he left the hearing he even said to a journalist who had questioned the conspiracy theory of being part of the conspiracy

[edit] Fulham FC

Fayed bought Second Division (equivalent to modern Football League One) Fulham F.C. from chairman Jimmy Hill in the summer of 1997. His initial, ambitious long-term aim was that Fulham would become a FA Premier League side within five years. To this end he installed the managerial "dream team" of Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan, which resulted in the sacking of Micky Adams, who had guided Fulham to promotion from the then named Third Division.

Fulham stormed to the Second Division title with a record 101 points in 1999. Kevin Keegan was appointed manager of England at this time. In 2001, Fulham took the First Division (now Football League Championship) under manager Jean Tigana, winning 100 points and scoring over 100 goals in the season. This meant that Fayed had achieved his objective of Fulham being a Premiership club a year ahead of schedule.

Fayed stated that he wanted Fulham to become the "Manchester United of the South", referring to United's rise in the 1990s to being one of the biggest clubs in the world.

On the 5th May 2007, Fayed celebrated his 10th year with Fulham. This was marked by a 1-0 win over Liverpool, which ensured that the club retained their Premiership status for another season.

In 2003, Fayed moved from Surrey, UK to Switzerland, alleging a breach in an agreement with the Her Majesty's Inland Revenue Commissioners. In 2005, he moved back to Britain, saying that he "regards Britain as home".^[7]

[edit] Organizations owned or involved in

Harrods, Knightsbridge
Fulham Football Club
The Hôtel Ritz Paris
Balnagown Estate (a retreat in the Scottish Highlands)
Harrods Estates (property management company)
Punch magazine
Air Harrods (private helicopter service)
Harrods Aviation (private aircraft management)
Harrods 102
Hyde Park Residence (luxury rental properties)
HJW GeoSpatial (geospatial / a U.S. mapping company)^[8]

[edit] Books and television

Fayed: The Unauthorized Biography by Tom Bower.
Mahmoud Masry, a fictionalized TV series based on Mohamed Fayed's life, aired November 2004 simultaneously across Arabic-language satellite TV stations during the Ramadan month prime-time.
A 2005 television documentary made by Keith Allen, entitled, You're Fayed! included an extensive interview about Fayed's views on the British Royal Family, Diana, Princess of Wales, Harrods, and his lifestyle.
Fayed appeared on the popular UK based Channel 4 Da Ali G Show in which he and 'Ali' freestyled a "tongue-in-cheek" rap on the topic of theft from Harrods, parodying the song "Can I kick it" by A Tribe Called Quest into "Can I nick it".
Fayed briefly appeared in an episode of Being Bobby Brown in which he gave Bobby Brown an aphrodisiac he called "Egyptian Viagra".^[9]
Fayed appeared in an episode of Dream Team, where he petitioned to have the Harchester Dragons play their final match against Everton.
Fayed donated the use of one of his helicopters for a special of Challenge Anneka in 2007. The helicopter was used to transport some sick children to a choir performance, for a musical album, which the show was challenged to produce in just five days.
Fayed is featured in the 2007 television docudrama Diana: Last Days of a Princess. In addition to being portrayed by actor Nadim Sawalha, he appears as himself in interview segments interspersed with scripted scenes.
Fayed appeared on the The Howard Stern Show March 6, 2007, He showed his usual conviction and spoke about his theories surrounding the death of Dodi and Diana. Steve Langford, a member of the Stern Show's news department (who had been a journalist covering the death of Diana for Hard Copy in 1997) also took the opportunity to ask Al Fayed some questions on-air regarding the night Dodi and Diana died.
Fayed appeared in the ITV Satirical Comedy Headcases presenting "Mohamed Al-Fayed's World of Conspiracies" in which he blames Prince Philip for several events in history.