Fayed, al-, Mohamed (1931- )

Egyptian entrepreneur and owner of the prestigious Harrods department store in London, England, the Paris Ritz Hotel in France, and Fulham Football Club in London. A controversial figure, following a UK government investigation into his takeover of Harrods and his involvement in a political ‘cash-for-questions’ scandal, al-Fayed was refused British citizenship in 1994, endorsed in 2000. He became known internationally when his son, Dodi (1955-1997), was killed in a car crash with Diana, Princess of Wales, in August 1997.

Al-Fayed has been at the centre of a number of public controversies. The Harrods takeover in 1985 sparked a bitter feud with British entrepreneur Tiny Rowland and a critical official report into al-Fayed's conduct. In 1994 it was revealed that al-Fayed had paid government ministers to table parliamentary questions, and ministers Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith resigned. In 1999 al-Fayed won a controversial libel action against Hamilton, upheld on appeal in 2000.

Other prominent al-Fayed interests include Punch magazine, which he relaunched in 1996 (following its earlier demise in 1992), and his stake in Fulham Football Club in London. With his brother he also owns Turnbull and Asser, the Jermyn Street shirt makers in London.

Al-Fayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the son of a teacher. Having started as a small trader selling Coca-Cola and sewing machines, he was employed in the 1950s by the future Saudi billionaire, Adnan Khashoggi, to negotiate import business contracts before working as an adviser to the Sultan of Brunei.

He moved to the UK in the 1970s, briefly joining the board of the mining conglomerate Lonrho in 1975. Having bought (with his brother, Ali) the Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1979, al-Fayed went on to instigate one of the most acrimonious corporate battles ever seen in the UK - outmanoeuvring Tiny Rowland, the head of Lonrho, to win control of the House of Fraser (and its flagship store Harrods) in 1985 in a £615 million takeover. Two years later, after Rowland had led a bitter personal campaign against al-Fayed, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) launched an investigation into the takeover. In a critical report, the DTI concluded that al-Fayed had persistently lied about his wealth and background - details of which Rowland leaked in his Observer newspaper. Rowland was later to accuse al-Fayed of breaking into his Harrods safety deposit box. Without admitting liability, al-Fayed settled the dispute, after Rowland's death, with his widow.

Aware of the damage to his reputation (and to his application, together with that of his brother, for British citizenship), al-Fayed approached backbench members of Parliament (MPs) to lobby the UK Home Office on his behalf. However, the British government refused to overturn the DTI report, and in 1994 al-Fayed revealed that he had given cash and hospitality to some MPs in exchange for tabling parliamentary questions. The disclosure of the cash-for-questions scandal caused the resignation of two junior ministers and was a factor that contributed to the Conservative government's defeat in the 1997 general election.

The al-Fayed brothers' application for British citizenship was rejected in October 1994. Following a Court of Appeal ruling, they reapplied to the government - al-Fayed was again rejected (although his brother's application was ultimately successful in March 1999). Despite a subsequent judicial review of the rejection, the appeal court judges endorsed the refusal of citizenship in July 2000.

In 1997 it emerged in the press that al-Fayed's son, Dodi, was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales. Later that year Dodi and Diana were killed in a car accident in Paris, as was their driver (an al-Fayed employee). After the accident al-Fayed promoted various theories about the cause of the accident. His attempt to obtain CIA documents relating to the crash was rejected by the US appeals court in October 2000. Earlier in the same year he lost the Duke of Edinburgh's royal warrant awarded to Harrods.

Other prominent al-Fayed interests include Punch magazine, which he relaunched in 1996 (following its earlier demise in 1992) and to which he contributes as a regular columnist, and his stake in Fulham Football Club in London. With his brother he also owns Turnbull and Asser, the Jermyn Street shirt makers in London.

Al-Fayed was awarded the French Legion of Honour for his restoration of the Paris Ritz and the Bois de Boulogne villa of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor in France.