Editing Mohamed Al-Fayed (section)

===1988 DTI Report===
From 1985 until 1987 Rowland led a worldwide investigation into Al-Fayed and his acquisition of Harrods. He employed accountants and solicitors, private detectives and freelance journalists in an operation, said to cost many millions of pounds, that was beyond the scope of any newspaper inquiry.<ref name="set-record"/> Illicit bugging devices were used and some of the money went in bribes to officials to unearth incriminating documents in Egypt, Haiti, Dubai, Brunei, France and Switzerland, allegedly proving fraudulent dealings by Al-Fayed and showing his humble origins and limited net worth.<ref name="set-record"/>

The results of Rowland's investigations into the Al-Fayeds were given to the Sunday newspaper ''The Observer'', owned by Lonrho. ''The Observer'' campaigned for an inquiry into the House of Fraser purchase, and an inquiry by inspectors from the Department of Trade and Industry was delivered in July 1988, but the DTI declined to publish it. Rowland obtained a copy in 1989, and the report was published in a special free sixteen page edition of ''The Observer'' on a Thursday morning. Publishing the report helped put the DTI inspectors' findings into the public arena, helping ''The Observer''s libel defence, with the aim of pressuring the government into releasing the report.<ref name="set-record"/> Lawyers from the DTI produced a court injunction and ordered all copies of ''The Observer''s version of the report to be handed over or pulped. The report was officially published in 1990.<ref name="set-record"/>

The DTI report said that the Al-Fayed brothers had 'dishonestly represented their origins, their wealth, their business interests and their resources to the Secretary of State, to the Office of Fair Trading, to the House of Fraser board and shareholders, and their own advisers' <ref name="attack-sleaze"/> Rowland and the Lohnro group had previously been strongly criticised by a 1976 DTI report, and had been described by Prime Minister Edward Heath as "an unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism".<ref name="obit-angus">{{Cite news |date=27 December 2004 |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1479803/Sir-Angus-Ogilvy.html|title=Obituary: Sir Angus Ogilvy|publisher=The Telegraph|location=London}}</ref>

In 1993 the [[European Court of Human Rights]] dismissed a case brought by Al-Fayed and his brothers against the British Government, which had accused them of misrepresentation in the DTI report. They contended that the report had ruined their reputation and was not subject to appeal.<ref name="suit-fayeds">{{Cite news |date=27 December 2004 |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/22/business/suit-by-fayeds-is-dismissed.html|title=Suit by Fayeds is Dismissed | work =  The New York Times}}</ref>