Mohamed al Fayed, Egyptian self-made billionaire and former Harrods and Fulham FC owner dies aged 94. He died after the car crash in Paris that killed his eldest son, Dodi and Diana, Princes of  Wales on 31 August 1997. Al Fayed, son of a school teacher, was born in Alexandra. He launched his own shipping business, before becoming adviser to the Sultan of Brunei in 1966. He arrived in the UK in the 1970s and joined the board of mining conglomerate Lonrho in 1975 which lasted nine months. In 1979, with his brother Ali he bought the Paris Ritz Hotel. In 1985, and by 1985, he bought Harrods with a £615m takeover bid. He retained the ownership of the store after the Frasers group entered public trading until 2010, when he sold it to Qatar Holding and even resurrected the satirical magazine Punch. In 1997 he bought Fulham football club in west London for £6.25m, and invited Michael Jackson to watch a game at Craven Cottage. In 1999, Al Fayed agreed for the club’s manager Kevin Keegan to take over as the England national team manager. Al Fayed sold the club to Shahid Khan in 2013. The entrepreneur was the architect of the cash-for-questions  scandal in 1994 which saw MPs like Tim Smith, as a Northern Ireland minister, resign, after failing to declare  that they had been paid by the Egyptian to ask questions in parliament.  Neil Hamilton who accepted bribes including holiday in Paris Ritz hotel, and a free shopping spree at Harrods, although did not stand down, lost his seat at the 1997 general election.

The billionaire fought a long-running campaign after the deaths of Dodi and Diana, alleging that the crash was not an accident and that it had been orchestrated by the British Security Services, although the French Police concluded it was an accident, caused in part by speeding and by the high alcohol level in driver Henri Paul’s blood.

Al Fayed became a good friend of Diana after sponsoring charities and events attended by royal family members.