A former employee of the late billionaire Mohamed al-Fayed has said that he “raped and brutally abused” her when she worked at the luxury British department store Harrods, and that his brother was aware of her trafficking.
The account, detailed in an American court filing on Tuesday, said that Ali Fayed, Mr. al-Fayed’s younger brother, may have evidence showing that Harrods was complicit in the widespread sexual abuse of company employees by its owner Mr. al-Fayed, and in its coverup.
Ali Fayed, who is 80 and has a residence in Greenwich, Conn., is a former director of Harrods and the current chairman of a 139-year-old British shirt maker that supplies the royal family.
The woman, identified in the court documents as Jane Doe because she said she fears retaliation, is a permanent resident of the United States, and made the accusations in a petition to the Federal District Court in Connecticut. The filing does not directly bring legal claims against Ali Fayed; instead, it lays the groundwork for evidence to be collected for legal disputes in other countries.
The details in the filing are the latest in a series of allegations of abuse made against Mr. al-Fayed, who is accused of using Harrods as a hunting ground for young women after he bought the department store with his two brothers, Ali and Salah, in 1985. His alleged crimes have been compared to those of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein in their scale and systematic nature.
The new accusations throw a spotlight on the role of Ali Fayed amid increasing public outrage over the alleged abuse, the people who are said to have enabled it, and the fact that Mr. al-Fayed never faced a public reckoning before his death last year at the age of 94.
Harrods, an iconic London department store, has for decades been synonymous with British luxury. Mr. al-Fayed, a business tycoon, owned Harrods from 1985 to 2010 and wooed British high society, including the royal family, as he rose to national prominence. His son Dodi was in a romantic relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales, when they both died in a 1997 car crash.
In September, a BBC documentary featured the testimony of 20 ex-employees of Harrods who said they were raped or abused by Mr. al-Fayed in incidents spanning decades, sending shock waves through Britain and raising questions about the culture within Harrods and the other businesses Mr. al-Fayed owned.
Ms. Doe and her lawyers claim that Ali Fayed was a witness to her abuse and has “unique and critical evidence regarding the direction, operation, and knowledge of a more than two-decade long trafficking scheme that ensnared and irrevocably injured what is reported to be more than 100 women.”
Ms. Doe said in the court petition that she had instructed the Leigh Day law firm in Britain to pursue a civil claim there against Harrods and others who she said were responsible for, and complicit in, facilitating her trafficking and abuse. She said that she is seeking evidence from Ali Fayed for use in that litigation.
She also said in the petition that she is seeking a government inquiry into the systemic failures that allowed the abuse to continue for more than two decades, and to be concealed for a decade longer, allowing Mr. al-Fayed “to escape accountability.”
A judge will now review the petition, and if it is successful, Ali Fayed could be required to turn over documents and sit for a deposition.
Ali Fayed could not immediately be reached for comment.
Harrods, in response to a request to comment on the new allegations on Tuesday said, “Mr. Ali Fayed ceased to be a director when the business changed ownership in 2010.” The company acknowledged in a statement in September that it had “failed our employees” who were Mr. al-Fayed’s victims and announced that it had established a claims program to consider and resolve claims by its former employees.
Harrowing allegations of abuse by al-Fayed
Ms. Doe said in the court petition that she was hired by Harrods at age 19 in the mid-1990s to work as a salesperson, but was soon interviewed by Mr. al-Fayed and invited to work in Harrods’ executive training program and report directly to his office. She said she was given a medical examination arranged by Harrods that included an AIDS test.
Ms. Doe said in the court filing that she was then taken by Mr. al-Fayed aboard a Harrods helicopter and Harrods private plane, and was trafficked, raped and “brutally abused” over a “substantial period of time” while being subject to surveillance.
Ms. Doe said she interacted with Ali Fayed on multiple occasions in this period, detailing in the filing that he joked about her working as a secretary, and that she heard him making arrangements for a woman to be made available to him in London.
She said that during this period she was shown explicit Polaroid photographs of other women or girls who she believed were physically and sexually abused. She said that she told an unnamed member of the Fayed family about the trafficking, and that he said he knew of others. A medical examination performed after her escape confirmed signs of physical abuse, according to the filing.
The court petition states that Ms. Doe was forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement that forbade her to share information about her employment or abuse, including to law enforcement.
The story tallies with a number of other public accounts of abuse by Mr. al-Fayed given by women who once worked for him, and is notable because of the claims that his brother had knowledge of the abuse.
At least 21 separate allegations against Mr. al-Fayed were made to London’s Metropolitan Police Service between 2005 and 2023, the police confirmed last month, and a number were passed on to England’s Crown Prosecution Service, but no charges were ever filed.
Shirt maker to the King
Ali Fayed has held stakes in a number of companies over the years, his business interests often overlapping with his more prominent brother’s.
In 1986, he bought Turnbull & Asser, a luxury men’s wear retailer whose shirts and suits are worn by King Charles III. Charles granted the company a “royal warrant” in 1980 while he was Prince of Wales, enabling it to promote the fact that it supplies the royal family, and he wore a Turnbull & Asser shirt on his coronation day. Ali Fayed is listed as chairman and a director in Britain’s official register of companies. Turnbull & Asser, when reached by phone, declined a request for comment, but said it would pass along a request to Ali Fayed’s team.
Linda Singer, a lawyer at Motley Rice who is representing Ms. Doe, and said that Ali Fayed “is uniquely positioned to testify to who knew what and who did what.”
She added that the evidence will assist not only a potential claim by Ms. Doe in Britain, but also claims made by other Harrods survivors, “to help ensure that all of those who participated in, aided, and concealed this decades-long trafficking enterprise can be held to account.”
Ms. Singer represented the U.S. Virgin Islands in litigation over claims that JP Morgan Chase facilitated the activities of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died by suicide in 2019. The bank agreed to pay $75 million to settle the claims.
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