\n<\/p>\n
Amy McIlquham was 21 when she was asked to go to Gstaad, Switzerland, for a long weekend with her boss.<\/p>\n
Ms. McIlquham had joined Harrods, the luxury department store in London, in 1993. A Canadian on a work-abroad program, she was promoted from the shop floor to become a personal assistant to Mohamed al-Fayed, who co-owned the business with his younger brothers, Salah and Ali.<\/p>\n
In early 1994, she recalled, she boarded the company\u2019s private jet and flew to Gstaad to work as an assistant to Ali.<\/p>\n
Once she got there, however, there was no work to do, she said. She was alone in the chalet with Ali and a housekeeper. Then Ali, who was in his early 50s, took her to a swimming pool. She remembers the black swimsuit and fake pearl necklace she was wearing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI just remember him pulling me in, the groping and the pulling in from the waist and my bottom, just grabbing and groping and pulling,\u201d said Ms. McIlquham, now 52, in an interview. She believes it was the weekend of April 30, 1994, because she remembers the Eurovision Song Contest was on TV.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was molested, sexually molested, without a doubt. And he was just giggling,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
A spokesman for Ali, who is now 81 and lives in Greenwich, Conn., denied the allegations from Ms. McIlquham and others. \u201cThe alleged incidents simply never occurred,\u201d the spokesman said in a statement. \u201cMr. Fayed is not a perpetrator and will not be scapegoated. He will robustly defend himself against these unsubstantiated claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September, a BBC documentary<\/a> revealed how Mohamed al-Fayed, the billionaire former chairman of Harrods, had abused women for decades before he died in 2023. More than 20 women shared accounts of having been raped or sexually assaulted<\/a> by him, detailing how he used his companies to groom and exploit them. Harrods apologized, describing him as \u201can individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated.\u201d<\/p>\n But in the months since, several female former employees have come forward to allege that his brothers \u2014 Salah, who died in 2010, and Ali \u2014 also assaulted them, deepening a scandal that once appeared centered on one man.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n As the last living brother, Ali could still face possible repercussions as the dark history of the Fayed family and the iconic department store they ran is unearthed. This month, the BBC published the accounts of three women, including Ms. McIlquham, who said that Ali sexually assaulted them while they worked for Harrods<\/a> in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. McIlquham said that she believes what happened to her in Switzerland took place within a broader system at Fayed-owned companies to exploit women. She said that Ali \u201coperated this system to his advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n In coming forward, Ms. McIlquham and others point a finger not only at Ali but also at the doctors, recruiters, human resource professionals and others who enabled the alleged abuse at the Fayeds\u2019 businesses.<\/p>\n Accounts given to The New York Times by another three women who said that they had been targeted by Mohamed or Salah, together with court filings, signal a pattern of exploitation at Harrods and at the Ritz Paris, a hotel the brothers also owned. Documents, emails and corroborating details from other women provide additional evidence of their allegations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Harrods, which is now owned by Qatar\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, said it would not comment on individual cases but \u201csupports the bravery of all survivors in coming forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTheir claims point to the breadth of abuse by Mohamed Fayed and raise serious allegations against his brothers, Salah and Ali Fayed,\u201d a spokesperson for Harrods said.<\/p>\n The Fayed brothers, who were born in Egypt, founded a shipping business together and then amassed oil, banking and real estate interests around the world.<\/p>\n They bought the Ritz Paris in 1979 and Harrods in 1985. When Mohamed moved to London in 1974, he added \u201cal-\u201d to his name, though his brothers still went by Fayed. Mohamed later became known for the romance between his son, Dodi, and Diana, Princess of Wales, who both died in a 1997 car crash<\/a>. Salah and Ali remained lesser-known figures, but their business interests were intertwined.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n All four women interviewed by The Times described being recruited into executive training programs that brought them closer to the brothers. Two women said that they had been targeted by more than one brother.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In October 1993, while working as Mohamed\u2019s personal assistant, Ms. McIlquham was sent to Villa Windsor, the Paris mansion where Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson once lived, and which Mohamed had leased. After she went to sleep, she said, Mohamed entered her room with just a towel around his waist, and crawled into her bed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe groping, the panting, the touching, him just going in for you, it was awful,\u201d she said. He eventually left when she mentioned her mother. Another Harrods employee, who asked to remain anonymous over privacy concerns, was on the trip with Ms. McIlquham and corroborated the stay at the Villa Windsor, and the date \u2014 Oct. 13, 1993 \u2014 which she had recorded in her diary.<\/p>\n Ms. McIlquham said that she hadn\u2019t told anyone about the assault by Mohamed or Ali\u2019s groping of her because she assumed that she would be blamed. She needed the job to pay her rent, and she continued working for Harrods until 1996, when she left Britain. \u201cI had to distance myself from what was going on, and get as far away as I could,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Rachael Louw, now 53, joined Harrods in 1993 before being recruited the following year as a personal assistant to Salah. In the summer of 1994, she was told by a supervisor to accompany Salah to his yacht and was given money for new clothes. She traveled on a Harrods jet with Salah to France before a driver took them to Monaco.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI thought I would be given files to file, paperwork to put away, maybe I would be making the travel arrangements,\u201d she said. But there was nothing, she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Salah instructed her not to talk to the staff and propositioned her sexually multiple times. Each time, she rebuffed him. Then, one night, he climbed into her bed, she said. \u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m lonely, I just want to sleep with you,\u2019\u201d she recounted. \u201cIt was the longest night of my life. I just lay there and I couldn\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n Afterward, Ms. Louw asked to return to her previous job on the shop floor and tried to move on with her life. But in 1996, she said that Mohamed summoned her to his Park Lane apartment for some paperwork. Once there, Mohamed put his hand up her skirt and groped her, Ms. Louw said.<\/p>\n Like Ms. McIlquham, she did not feel able to speak out at the time. \u201cThis was just a part of my life I put into a box and never opened up,\u201d said Ms. Louw, who also spoke about her experiences<\/a> with Sky News this month. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Other women have shared accounts in recent months of being abused by Salah, including in a November report by the BBC<\/a>. In a lawsuit filed in London on Jan. 29, a woman, who was granted anonymity by the court, alleged that Salah drugged and raped her<\/a> while she worked for Harrods and that he coerced her into \u201cterminating a forced pregnancy,\u201d according to court documents. She is suing the company.<\/p>\n Kristina Svensson, 56, worked at the Ritz Paris from 1998 to 2000 as a personal assistant to Mohamed. She said that senior staff at the Ritz knew that employees were being abused there, an allegation supported by an email seen by The Times.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were not hired for real jobs. We were hired to be abused sexually,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n When she first met Mohamed, he forcibly kissed her, she said, shoving his tongue in her mouth. On another occasion when she was alone with him in an office, Ms. Svensson said he shoved open her legs with his knee and then thrust her head into his crotch.<\/p>\n \u201cI was so, so afraid, and I couldn\u2019t get away,\u201d she said. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She felt unable to speak out, she said, because of the threat of losing her job. But eventually, she said, she told a senior executive at the Ritz Paris about the abuse and informed them that she was planning to resign. Days later, she was fired.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ms. Svensson outlined her allegations against Mohamed in a 2003 letter to a lawyer representing another hotel employee who said she had also experienced sexual assault. In the letter, seen by The Times, she noted that she had reported the sexual abuse to senior staff before leaving the Ritz Paris.<\/p>\n At least one other woman, Pelham Spong, told the Ritz that Mohamed had assaulted her, in an email exchange seen by The Times. Ms. Svensson<\/a>\u2019s account was included in the BBC documentary last year, and Ms. Spong<\/a> has previously spoken publicly about her assault.<\/p>\n Ms. Spong, who is American, was 23 and living in Paris when a recruiter asked in 2008 if she would consider a job as an assistant to the Fayeds in Monaco. \u201cI remember thinking \u2014 I\u2019m a woman with ambition. I think I\u2019m fairly smart, and this sounds amazing,\u201d Ms. Spong said. In London, she was given a gynecological exam that the company doctor said would remain confidential \u2014 a process that many victims of Mohamed also recounted.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She was found to have an infection and prescribed an antibiotic. Afterward, she was sent to Mohamed\u2019s office. \u201cHe sat me down, and he said, \u2018You saw the doctor. Did you take care of that problem?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI was humiliated.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n He offered to send her to business school, pay her rent and give her cash, she said, in exchange for sex. Then, she said, he grabbed her face and forcibly kissed her. On returning to Paris, she reported the assault to the recruiter, who shared the information with executives at the Ritz. Ms. Spong was told that she was no longer needed for the job. Emails between the recruiter and the Ritz Paris, seen by The Times, corroborate her account.<\/p>\n The Ritz Paris said it was conducting an investigation led by outside counsel. \u201cWe are alarmed by the recent testimonies and allegations of abuse,\u201d the Ritz said in a statement. \u201cWe do not tolerate any form of violence or sexual coercion and would like to express deepest sympathy to the brave women who have come forward.\u201d<\/p>\n The Metropolitan Police in London have received more than 100 allegations against Mohamed al-Fayed since the BBC documentary aired. In November, the police said they were investigating<\/a> at least five people who may have facilitated the abuse.<\/p>\n Sigrid McCawley, managing partner of Boies Schiller Flexner who is representing Ms. Spong and has represented some of Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s victims<\/a>, emphasized the importance of focusing not only on the abuse, but also on the system in which it occurred.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen with the Fayeds\u2019 story is just a saga that smacks of these enablers,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause we\u2019re seeing this systemic abuse is happening, and this well-oiled machine of all of these very sophisticated individuals that helped him commit these crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Sarah Hurtes contributed reporting.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe women were recruited into positions where they would be vulnerable.<\/h2>\n
The abuse extended to other businesses owned by the Fayeds.<\/h2>\n