Main Index

Section Six Index:
Mohamed 'Al' Fayed - the facts

Fayed's 'lied over Harrods' by Ben Laurance, Michael White, & Mark Milner
In this front-page splash Laurance, White & Milner focus on the web of lies that the Fayed brothers told the DTI Inspectors.  To summarise the Inspectors' 752-page report they take one quotation: "We uncovered more and more cases where the Fayeds were plainly telling us lies.. We became reluctant to believe anything they told us unless it was reliably corroborated by independent evidence."

Article No. 1

How lies bring their own reward by Peter Preston
In this leading article, The Guardian's editor berates, in turn: the Fayed brothers for lying and submitting false documents to the Inspectors; the Fayeds' bankers for not bothering to check the facts properly; and the government for doing nothing about it.

Article No. 2

Lies, lies and more lies: the mountain that came from Mohamed by Ben Laurence.
In this major feature Laurence describes how the Fayeds lied to their bankers, their lawyers; the government, and the House of Fraser board, about the source of the money they used to buy Harrods; how they provided documents to the inspectors they knew to be false; and had invented a new story when their original was discredited.
    Laurence also remarks how the Inspectors praised The Guardian for an article published in March 1985 questioning the Fayeds' claims.  Nowhere does Laurence acknowledge the inordinately greater credit given by the Inspectors to the Observer's financial staff in exposing the Fayeds' grand deception.

Article No. 3

Lying to investigators 'should lead to disqualification of directors' by Mark Milner
A short item focusing on the Inspectors' conclusion that lying and submitting false documents to Inspectors should be sufficient reason to disqualify company directors.

Article No. 4

Inspectors in call for changes in the City to prevent similar affair from happening again by Mark Milner
Another short piece listing six principal recommendations made by the Inspectors.

Article No. 5

A traditional nod that should not serve for scrutiny by Alex Brummer
In this weighty editorial The Guardian's financial editor argues for tighter financial regulation such as that practised in the USA.  In a searing attack on the City of London's practise of blackballing established entrepreneurs in favour of unknowns, Brummer opines that Tiny Rowland's contribution to British commercial life was infinitely more useful than anything the Fayeds appeared to have done.  He goes on to express his contempt for the Fayed brothers, who he describes as being of moral and ethical turpitude, citing, among other things, Mohamed's theft of over $100,000 from the poverty-stricken people of Haiti in 1964; and his virulent anti-Semitism.

Article No. 6:

'The Fayeds should leave the country' by Dan Atkinson
This short item reports the reaction of Lonrho's chairman, Sir Edward du Cann, and lists several demands that Lonrho would be making of the Government.

Article No. 7

'No evidence to implicate the Sultan' by Ben Laurence
In this short piece Laurence alludes to the Inspectors' conclusions falling short of an explicit allegation that the Sultan's money was used to buy Harrods; and quotes from their report their statements that make clear their belief that the Sultan's money was indeed used despite the absence of absolute proof.

Ridley plans no action, MPs told
Trade Secretary Nicholas Ridley's statement to the House of Commons.

Articles Nos. 8 & 9

'Shocking, inept and unjust'
The reaction of Fayed's spokesman, former BBC newscaster Michael Cole

'They won't be closing the store, will they?'  Dan Atkinson
Dan Atkinson reports on the public's reaction - or lack of it - to the DTI Report

Articles Nos. 10 & 11