Mohamed Al-Fayed was a “total crook” who sent people to “break my fingers”, author Tom Bower has alleged on GB News.
The late Harrods owner is the subject of a special investigation with more than 20 female former employees speaking to the BBC.
Five women alleged they had been raped by Al Fayed, who died last year at the age of 94.
Bower, who wrote Fayed: The Unauthorised Biography in 1998, has spoken to GB News about his relations with the ex-Fulham FC owner.
Tom Bower branded Al-Fayed a ‘crook’
GB NEWS / PA
“He ran around London corrupting police, buying off lawyers and intimidating people who complained about him, innocent or not”, he said.
“He literally lied his way into buying Harrods and lied throughout his whole life. He was a total crook.”
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He added: “Morality was what was good for Fayed. He was a deeply unpleasant man.
“He has this act of giving money out, giving presents out and appearing like a cuddly bear when in fact, he was a very sinister bad man.
“He was a thoroughly Al Capone type business man.”
Bower told Mark Dolan that Al-Fayed was less than receptive to the idea of a book being written about him.
Tom Bower joined Mark Dolan on GB News
GB NEWS
The author, who has written a series of unauthorised biographies about the likes of Robert Maxwell, Jeremy Corbyn and Richard Branson, said Al-Fayed intimidated him frequently when he was in the process of writing the book.
“First of all, he offered me around £400,000 to write his book and I said no”, he said.
“Then I heard from some private investigators that he sent people out to break my fingers, so I couldn’t type.
“And then his head of security, a man called John MacNamara, set me up to be arrested for buying stolen goods, it was a long story, but I knew what he was up to.”
Fulham Football Club has initiated an investigation into whether anyone at the Premier League club was impacted by allegations of sexual assaults by Mohamed Al-FayedPABower then slated the BBC, saying they painted a rosy image of Al-Fayed when he died in 2023 at the age of 94.
“The media was supine”, he said.
“Even on his death, the BBC, instead of showing the interview I gave where I called him a crook, a blackmailer and a gangster, they ran his former spokesman calling him a lovely family man who never did a bad thing in his life.”