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Index to British press articles on the Fayeds' purchase of Harrods

The article reproduced here returns to a story first covered in The Observer five months earlier on 12th January 1986, which itself had picked up from an article in Private Eye published on 10th January, and which the Eye had run a second time in its next issue of 24th January.
    These three articles concerned an alleged trip taken by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's son Mark on 24 October 1984 to Brunei.  The timing of the date was significant, because a week later on 30 October the Conservative Trade Secretary Norman Tebbit had unexpectedly extended by 90 days the Government's embargo on Lonrho's own long-standing bid for House of Fraser - the implication being that Thatcher's visit to Brunei and Tebbit's extension of the embargo were linked.
    The hook for the article reproduced here, published five months later, was the Observer's recent possession of a certificate confirming the trip signed by Dato Ali, the permanent secretary of the Brunei Ministry of Home affairs, the existence of which had been first aired in the second Private Eye article of 24 January.  The article reports that the editor of local newspaper the Borneo Bulletin, Han Ling, had also confirmed the trip.

The Observer 
Sunday, 18 May 1986

POWERFUL new evidence has emerged that Mark Thatcher visited Brunei with Mohamed Fayed at a crucial time in the Harrods takeover battle. 
    The Observer is in possession of a certificate, signed by the former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs in Brunei, confirming the visit. 
    The two men flew in Fayed's private jet on 24 October 1984 and left two days later.  That was just a week before the Monopolies Commission report into Lonrho's bid to buy the House of Fraser was delayed for three months.  The Egyptian Fayed brothers used that time to acquire the group with the help of the Sultan's millions. 
    Mark Thatcher was representing a Gulf construction company with an interest in a £600 million university complex in Brunei.  He was introduced by a letter from the Finance Minister of Oman, where he had previously earned an undisclosed commission on a building contract for the British firm Cementation. 
    When the Brunei visit was first revealed in The Observer in January, Fayed denied that he had ever met the Prime Minister's son, and issued his denial as a press statement.  The Observer refused to carry it unless Fayed agreed to sign it personally, which he declined to do.  Mark Thatcher made no comment. 
    The visit has been independently confirmed by Han Ling, editor of the Borneo Bulletin, which circulates in Brunei.  'I know for a fact Mark Thatcher was here,' he said. 

    A rich and mysterious Indian guru is emerging as another key figure in the Harrods deal.  It was he, Shri Chandra Swamiji Maharaj, who arranged the introduction of Mohammed Fayed to the Sultan of Brunei in 1984.
    The Swami, a giant bearded figure in flowing white, claims to advise a number of leading political figures around the world, including King Hussein of Jordan, President Mobutu, Rajiv Gandhi and Richard Nixon.  He is currently on his way to visit ex-President Marcos in Honolulu.  He has met Mrs Thatcher several times.
    The Swami is always accompanied by his business adviser Mamaji, Kailash Nath Agar Vall, who relieves him of any unpleasant commercial transactions which may happily occur in the course of his spiritual interviews.
    Fayed was asked for two million dollars for the introduction to the Sultan.  Eventually Fayed paid the Swami half a million dollars plus a percentage of any future deals, which might result from the meeting.  These turned out to be substantial. 
    By August 1984, Mohammed Fayed was established with a power of attorney to handle some of the Sultan's cash balances in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.  Fayed acted for the Sultan over the purchase of the Dorchester Hotel, which stands close to two Park Lane apartment blocks which Fayed owns and in one of which he lives.
    A sum of $86 million transferred from the account of Carl Hirschmann in Vaduz to Mohammed Fayed's bank account in Geneva, and a larger sum from the account of a Mr Lavia with the Credit Suisse in Zurich.
    Both these men were holding funds belonging to the Sultan.  The rolled-up sums were held to the joint and separate order of the Sultan and Mohammed, and were very shortly used to guarantee the purchase of the House of Fraser in the form of certificates of deposit which were passed to Kleinwort Benson, the merchant bankers.
    The Fayeds were finally given the go-ahead in 10 days by the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Norman Tebbit, who decided against a Monopolies Commission reference.  He was influenced in this decision by assurances from Kleinwort Benson that the Fayeds owned substantial assets.  In fact, their net worth was then between £15-£25 million.  Since the Harrods deal, they are now worth several billions.
    In January 1985, the Sultan and Mohammed Fayed met Mrs Thatcher at Downing Street.  Brunei then transferred five billion dollars from the US to relieve the British Sterling crisis.
    In April Fayed arranged for Mrs Thatcher to meet the Sultan at his sumptuous palace in Brunei.  He presented her with a gold bracelet studded with diamonds and rubies.
    Another Thatcher-Fayed connection is through Sir Gordon Reece, the Prime Minister's close adviser, who also acts for Fayed and has a flat in one of his apartment blocks.
    MPs are likely to re-open the Harrods affair in Parliament this week.

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