Editing Mohamed Al-Fayed (section)

===Origins of wealth===
To take control of the House of Fraser group, the Al-Fayed brothers had to convince the British government that they possessed sufficient assets to securely purchase the group. The Al-Fayeds invented a spurious family history of old money for themselves. Represented by the investment bankers [[Kleinwort Benson]] and the law firm [[Herbert Smith]], the Al-Fayeds' bankers submitted to the government a one and a half page summary of their assets, which the government accepted.<ref name="maureen-orth"/> The Al-Fayed brothers claimed they were from a family of wealthy cotton traders. Their wealth was estimated by their bankers, Kleinwort Benson, to total "several billion dollars".<ref name="attack-sleaze">{{Cite news|date=26 October 1994|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/the-attack-on-sleaze-mystery-origins-of-brothers-paper-fortune-james-cusick-looks-at-the-revelations-of-the-dti-investigation-into-the-fayed-familys-business-affairs-1444980.html|title=The Attack on Sleaze: Mystery origins of brothers' paper fortune: James Cusick looks at the revelations of the DTI investigation into the Fayed family's business affairs|work=The Independent|location=London}}</ref> A press release by Kleinwort Benson stated that the Al-Fayeds were an "old established Egyptian family who for more than 100 years were ship owners, land owners and industrialists in Egypt." The report said that they were raised in Britain and fled Egypt following the rise to power of [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]].<ref name="maureen-orth"/>

The DTI report came to very different conclusions about the scale of their wealth, stating that; <blockquote> <p>If people had known, for instance, that they only owned one luxury hotel; that their interests in oil exploration consortia were of no current value; that their banking interests consisted of less than 5 percent of the issued share capital of a bank and were worth less than $10 million; that they had no current interests in construction projects: that far from being 'leading shipowners in the liner trade' they only owned two roll-on roll-off 1600 ton cargo ferries; if all these facts had been known people would have been less disposed to believe that the Al-Fayeds really owned the money they were using to buy HOF (House of Fraser)</p>
<p>''1988 DTI report into the background of the Fayed brothers''</p>
<ref name="maureen-orth"/>
</blockquote>

In March 1985 the Al-Fayeds announced a formal cash offer for House of Fraser of £615 million, which Kleinwort claimed was untethered by any borrowings. There has not yet been a comprehensive account of Al-Fayeds finances in 1985, but the DTI report claimed that by October 1984 the Al-Fayeds had at least $600 million in the Royal Bank of Scotland and in a Swiss bank at their disposal.<ref name="maureen-orth"/> "We were not told the source of any of these funds or given a credible story as to how and where they were obtained", said the DTI inspectors.<ref name="maureen-orth"/> The money the Al-Fayeds claimed as their own was apparently used as collateral in order to guarantee a loan of more than £400 million to buy House of Fraser.<ref name="maureen-orth"/>

Al-Fayed told [[Maureen Orth]] in an interview that "If you have a company with tremendous assets like Harrods...you have no problem. You don't need to use cash."<ref name="maureen-orth"/> The first loan, from a Swiss bank, was replaced with another loan secured by House of Fraser shares, the Al-Fayeds had acquired the House of Fraser with none of their own money used to purchase it.<ref name="maureen-orth"/> The Al-Fayeds ownership of Harrods was complete when the British government issued a press release announcing that it would not refer the Al-Fayeds' bid to the [[Monopolies and Mergers Commission]].<ref name="maureen-orth"/>

During the final stages of the Al-Fayeds purchase of Harrods, [[Tiny Rowland]] wrote to the [[Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills|Secretary of State for Trade and Industry]], [[Norman Tebbit]], repudiating the Al-Fayeds story of the origin of their families wealth.<ref name="maureen-orth"/>  Rowland also enlisted the help of [[Ashraf Marwan]], to aid him in his exposing of the Al-Fayeds. ''[[The Observer]]'' newspaper, owned by Rowland, was used to attack the Al-Fayeds. Al-Fayed issued a libel suit against ''The Observer'', and other newspapers critical of the Al-Fayeds were routinely threatened or issued with similar writs. All critical reporting of the Al-Fayeds outside of the ''Observer'' was virtually stopped.<ref name="maureen-orth"/>