9 ms·

Mohamed Al-Fayed began life as a porter in Alexandria and died as a billionaire

42 points by webmobdev 3y ago

4rt 3y ago
He seemed like a great guy on Ali-G. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bYjGHRX9dE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bYjGHRX9dE
GEBBL 3y ago
A good person - may he RIP
- mycologos 3y ago
  People are of course complicated, but Fayed seems, uh, more complicated than most [1]: > In 1964 Fayed arrived in Haiti, one of the world’s poorest nations, hailed as a rich sheikh from Kuwait. He romanced one of Papa Doc’s daughters and persuaded Duvalier to give him an oil concession and a contract to manage the Port-au-Prince harbour. The Duvaliers’ love affair with Fayed was short-lived. Early in 1965 the fake sheikh left Haiti, never to return. More than $100,000 (almost $1m today) was reportedly found to be missing from the port authority’s bank account. > A dangerous opponent, [Fayed] would make the wildest allegations in public as well as private against enemies or those he blamed for setbacks. He fabricated documents and paid witnesses to perjure themselves. It was often difficult to detect whether Fayed himself believed the allegations he repeated with such conviction. > There were repeated allegations of sexual harassment of female staff. Some who complained were accused of theft and on occasions arrested by local police only too willing to accept allegations (later dropped) from a powerful patron. In 2009 the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge Fayed over the claim he had sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at the store. Fayed had been interviewed by Scotland Yard under caution. He was interviewed again in 2013 after a woman alleged he had sexually attacked her at his Park Lane apartment after a job interview. The police reopened the case in 2015 but took no further action. Fayed always denied the allegations. Further sexual harassment allegations were made by former Harrods employees in a Channel 4 documentary in 2017 and to Channel 4 News in 2018. One ex-employee claimed to have accepted £60,000 to drop a sexual harassment claim. Fayed again denied the allegations and the police took no action. I guess you could also claim that the British press has had and continues to have it out for him, so these are just skewed portrayals of a bon vivant, or something. But from the uninformed outside he certainly looks like a guy who made his money as a fixer/corruption specialist (like the people who built industrial empires after the collapse of the USSR -- they certainly won a hard game, but it's difficult to say they did something good) and mostly used it to make life unpleasant for people around him. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fayed-obituary https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fay...
  - zimpenfish 3y ago
    Back issues of Private Eye from the late 80s and 90s almost certainly cover a lot of his dodgy dealings for anyone wanting to know more. Probably mention him in their next podcast too (~20th Sept? Their output is erratic.)
thehm 3y ago
This is a very rosey interpretation of Al-Fayed and glosses over vast swathes of fraud and misrepresentation. A more balanced view can be gained from the Guardian, itself no fan of the British establishment: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fayed-obituary https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fay...
- waihtis 3y ago
  Balanced by whose standards?
  - esotericimpl 3y ago
    [dead]
  - verve_rat 3y ago
    Thehm's standards?
- LeifCarrotson 3y ago
  You don't make 2 billion dollars just by doing honest work for 94 years. If the average man's labor is worth $15/hr, and he never spent (nor was taxed) a dime of that, Al-Fayed was either more than 700 times smarter, faster, stronger, and harder-working than the average man... or he acquired that wealth by doing something other than hard work.
  - logifail 3y ago
    > If the average man's labor is worth $15/hr [..] Al-Fayed was either more than 700 times smarter, faster, stronger, and harder-working than the average man Wonder what the average HN reader's labor is worth, and whether our output would be described as "honest work".
  - have_faith 3y ago
    I'll agree that it's rare for people to get to the top in life without taking some dubious shortcuts but that maths doesn't seem right. Someone being 1.2 times smarter than average (or some other metric) can probably extract orders of magnitude more value out of the system with enough intent and motivation (without being dishonest). I think it takes much less than you're thinking, but I don't have anything to prove that.
cjrp 3y ago
Fun fact, he built a helipad on the roof of Harrods (the high-end department store he owned) but was then banned from using it. Still visible on the roof https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harrods/@51.4992472,-0.1625296,89m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x48760538ed2a30ff:0x15ee630d4b4e0d42!8m2!3d51.4994055!4d-0.1632344!16zL20vMDFuaGt4?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harrods/@51.4992472,-0.162...
- flunkydunka 3y ago
  And a statue of Michael Jackson outside of the Soccer club he owned at the time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Michael_Jackson_(Fulham_F.C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Michael_Jackson_(Ful....) The Poor Fulham fans, there was much hilarity had by everyone else.
waihtis 3y ago
[flagged]
- louthy 3y ago
  You sound victimised.
  - waihtis 3y ago
    Please read the HN comment guidelines on how to comment on this platform: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - louthy 3y ago
      Pointing out hypocrisy is not against the guidelines. I might well ask you to do the same, as your comment is obviously flame inciting.
      - waihtis 3y ago
        I don't you know in real life and you don't know me, so you would be well advised not to cook up imaginary characterizations of me
        runnerup 3y ago
        I told GP the same thing as you (to read the HN guidelines). However, I don’t see any characterization happening in the comment above. What am I missing? I believe they are referencing the other comment you made: > When in Rome, do as the Romans do Which in this context is snarky, not substantive and likely to be flamebait.
        waihtis 3y ago
        your threads seem to be a bit wonky which sounds odd, this is how the conversation structure looks like: https://imgur.com/hNtGMdb https://imgur.com/hNtGMdb
fidotron 3y ago
I struggle to believe the idea the British establishment had no clue what he was up to. He was in reality doing their dirty work and aggrandizing them in the process with his apparently endless desire to be accepted into their ranks. For decades the rumour has been that he is bankrupt and just putting up a huge facade. (Comparisons to Maxwell). If such a hole exists it did not catch up to him in life, which is an achievement one way or another given the scrutiny he was supposedly under.
- lbriner 3y ago
  Of course they know, just like they know about dirty money from abroad propping up the economy, empty properties owned by rich foreign nationals pushing up house prices for UK residents etc. but there are several steps between that and doing something about it: 1) They have to know (they probably do) 2) They have to care 3) They have to know what to do about it 4) They have to accept the potential disadvantages of taking action 5) They have to decide it is more important than everything else they have on their plate 6) They need to actually do something about it 7) They have to succeed in the Court case, Tax investigation etc. 8) Eventually, worse-case, the wealthy criminal just dusts themselves off and finds something else to do I'm sure that's why most Politicians just talk about stuff. It's too hard to actually do things.
moralestapia 3y ago
>[...] and eventual marriage to, the writer Samira Khashoggi, sister of the billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. Also the aunt of that journalist, in case you're wondering.
- mortureb 3y ago
  [flagged]
mavu 3y ago
I kind of doubt that he actually began life as a porter. Most of us begin as babies.
- runnerup 3y ago
  What does this add to the discussion? > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dang 3y ago
  (I don't mean to pile on to what runnerup already (and correctly) posted, but I also want to make sure you see this, so I'm posting it as a reply to your most recent comment.) Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
avar 3y ago
All of these articles discuss his desire for citizenship, and being refused. I've yet to read one that explains what a person of his standing would gain from British citizenship in practical terms, surely he was wealthy enough to permanently reside wherever he wanted.
- dfxm12 3y ago
  More than a document allowing him to reside somewhere, it was a status symbol to him, and something he thought important for his family moving forward. Think of the fictional Barry Lyndon in his quest for himself (and sons) to become part of the English Aristocracy.
- toyg 3y ago
  Things are not always rational in life, particularly with strong characters like him. He was probably influenced by the last remains of colonial Britain, getting his formative break under English-educated Kashoggi.
jongjong 3y ago
The main lesson I got out of it that you need to marry a billionaire's sister. Without the right connections, you get very few opportunities and even when you see a mediocre opportunity, you seize it as if it's your last. But with the right connections, it seems like amazing opportunities just fall on your lap and whatever ones you choose will yield great results. Surely it's not difficult to succeed in such situation.

42 points by webmobdev 3y ago

4rt 3y ago

He seemed like a great guy on Ali-G. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bYjGHRX9dE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bYjGHRX9dE

GEBBL 3y ago

A good person - may he RIP

mycologos 3y ago
People are of course complicated, but Fayed seems, uh, more complicated than most [1]: > In 1964 Fayed arrived in Haiti, one of the world’s poorest nations, hailed as a rich sheikh from Kuwait. He romanced one of Papa Doc’s daughters and persuaded Duvalier to give him an oil concession and a contract to manage the Port-au-Prince harbour. The Duvaliers’ love affair with Fayed was short-lived. Early in 1965 the fake sheikh left Haiti, never to return. More than $100,000 (almost $1m today) was reportedly found to be missing from the port authority’s bank account. > A dangerous opponent, [Fayed] would make the wildest allegations in public as well as private against enemies or those he blamed for setbacks. He fabricated documents and paid witnesses to perjure themselves. It was often difficult to detect whether Fayed himself believed the allegations he repeated with such conviction. > There were repeated allegations of sexual harassment of female staff. Some who complained were accused of theft and on occasions arrested by local police only too willing to accept allegations (later dropped) from a powerful patron. In 2009 the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to charge Fayed over the claim he had sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl at the store. Fayed had been interviewed by Scotland Yard under caution. He was interviewed again in 2013 after a woman alleged he had sexually attacked her at his Park Lane apartment after a job interview. The police reopened the case in 2015 but took no further action. Fayed always denied the allegations. Further sexual harassment allegations were made by former Harrods employees in a Channel 4 documentary in 2017 and to Channel 4 News in 2018. One ex-employee claimed to have accepted £60,000 to drop a sexual harassment claim. Fayed again denied the allegations and the police took no action. I guess you could also claim that the British press has had and continues to have it out for him, so these are just skewed portrayals of a bon vivant, or something. But from the uninformed outside he certainly looks like a guy who made his money as a fixer/corruption specialist (like the people who built industrial empires after the collapse of the USSR -- they certainly won a hard game, but it's difficult to say they did something good) and mostly used it to make life unpleasant for people around him. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fayed-obituary https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fay...
- zimpenfish 3y ago
  Back issues of Private Eye from the late 80s and 90s almost certainly cover a lot of his dodgy dealings for anyone wanting to know more. Probably mention him in their next podcast too (~20th Sept? Their output is erratic.)

thehm 3y ago

This is a very rosey interpretation of Al-Fayed and glosses over vast swathes of fraud and misrepresentation. A more balanced view can be gained from the Guardian, itself no fan of the British establishment: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fayed-obituary https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/02/mohamed-al-fay...

waihtis 3y ago
Balanced by whose standards?
- esotericimpl 3y ago
  [dead]
- verve_rat 3y ago
  Thehm's standards?
LeifCarrotson 3y ago
You don't make 2 billion dollars just by doing honest work for 94 years. If the average man's labor is worth $15/hr, and he never spent (nor was taxed) a dime of that, Al-Fayed was either more than 700 times smarter, faster, stronger, and harder-working than the average man... or he acquired that wealth by doing something other than hard work.
- logifail 3y ago
  > If the average man's labor is worth $15/hr [..] Al-Fayed was either more than 700 times smarter, faster, stronger, and harder-working than the average man Wonder what the average HN reader's labor is worth, and whether our output would be described as "honest work".
- have_faith 3y ago
  I'll agree that it's rare for people to get to the top in life without taking some dubious shortcuts but that maths doesn't seem right. Someone being 1.2 times smarter than average (or some other metric) can probably extract orders of magnitude more value out of the system with enough intent and motivation (without being dishonest). I think it takes much less than you're thinking, but I don't have anything to prove that.

cjrp 3y ago

Fun fact, he built a helipad on the roof of Harrods (the high-end department store he owned) but was then banned from using it. Still visible on the roof https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harrods/@51.4992472,-0.1625296,89m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x48760538ed2a30ff:0x15ee630d4b4e0d42!8m2!3d51.4994055!4d-0.1632344!16zL20vMDFuaGt4?entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/place/Harrods/@51.4992472,-0.162...

flunkydunka 3y ago
And a statue of Michael Jackson outside of the Soccer club he owned at the time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Michael_Jackson_(Fulham_F.C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Michael_Jackson_(Ful....) The Poor Fulham fans, there was much hilarity had by everyone else.

waihtis 3y ago

[flagged]

louthy 3y ago
You sound victimised.
- waihtis 3y ago
  Please read the HN comment guidelines on how to comment on this platform: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - louthy 3y ago
    Pointing out hypocrisy is not against the guidelines. I might well ask you to do the same, as your comment is obviously flame inciting.
    - waihtis 3y ago
      I don't you know in real life and you don't know me, so you would be well advised not to cook up imaginary characterizations of me
      - runnerup 3y ago
        I told GP the same thing as you (to read the HN guidelines). However, I don’t see any characterization happening in the comment above. What am I missing? I believe they are referencing the other comment you made: > When in Rome, do as the Romans do Which in this context is snarky, not substantive and likely to be flamebait.
        waihtis 3y ago
        your threads seem to be a bit wonky which sounds odd, this is how the conversation structure looks like: https://imgur.com/hNtGMdb https://imgur.com/hNtGMdb

fidotron 3y ago

I struggle to believe the idea the British establishment had no clue what he was up to. He was in reality doing their dirty work and aggrandizing them in the process with his apparently endless desire to be accepted into their ranks. For decades the rumour has been that he is bankrupt and just putting up a huge facade. (Comparisons to Maxwell). If such a hole exists it did not catch up to him in life, which is an achievement one way or another given the scrutiny he was supposedly under.

lbriner 3y ago
Of course they know, just like they know about dirty money from abroad propping up the economy, empty properties owned by rich foreign nationals pushing up house prices for UK residents etc. but there are several steps between that and doing something about it: 1) They have to know (they probably do) 2) They have to care 3) They have to know what to do about it 4) They have to accept the potential disadvantages of taking action 5) They have to decide it is more important than everything else they have on their plate 6) They need to actually do something about it 7) They have to succeed in the Court case, Tax investigation etc. 8) Eventually, worse-case, the wealthy criminal just dusts themselves off and finds something else to do I'm sure that's why most Politicians just talk about stuff. It's too hard to actually do things.

moralestapia 3y ago

>[...] and eventual marriage to, the writer Samira Khashoggi, sister of the billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. Also the aunt of that journalist, in case you're wondering.

mortureb 3y ago
[flagged]

mavu 3y ago

I kind of doubt that he actually began life as a porter. Most of us begin as babies.

runnerup 3y ago
What does this add to the discussion? > Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dang 3y ago
(I don't mean to pile on to what runnerup already (and correctly) posted, but I also want to make sure you see this, so I'm posting it as a reply to your most recent comment.) Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

avar 3y ago

All of these articles discuss his desire for citizenship, and being refused. I've yet to read one that explains what a person of his standing would gain from British citizenship in practical terms, surely he was wealthy enough to permanently reside wherever he wanted.

dfxm12 3y ago
More than a document allowing him to reside somewhere, it was a status symbol to him, and something he thought important for his family moving forward. Think of the fictional Barry Lyndon in his quest for himself (and sons) to become part of the English Aristocracy.
toyg 3y ago
Things are not always rational in life, particularly with strong characters like him. He was probably influenced by the last remains of colonial Britain, getting his formative break under English-educated Kashoggi.

jongjong 3y ago

The main lesson I got out of it that you need to marry a billionaire's sister. Without the right connections, you get very few opportunities and even when you see a mediocre opportunity, you seize it as if it's your last. But with the right connections, it seems like amazing opportunities just fall on your lap and whatever ones you choose will yield great results. Surely it's not difficult to succeed in such situation.