At the age of 21, Amy McIlquham received an invitation from her supervisor to spend a long weekend in Gstaad, Switzerland.
In 1993, Ms. McIlquham began working at London’s upscale department store, Harrods. A Canadian participating in a work-abroad program, she rose from the shop floor to serve as Mohamed al-Fayed’s personal assistant. Mohamed al-Fayed and his younger brothers, Ali and Salah, co-owned the company.
She remembered taking the company’s private plane to Gstaad in early 1994 to serve as Ali’s assistant.
But there was no work to be done once she arrived, she added. Ali and a maid were the only people in the cabin with her. Then she was taken to a swimming pool by Ali, who was in his early fifties.
“I just remember him pulling me in, the groping and the pulling in from the waist and my bottom, just grabbing and groping and pulling,” 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.
“I was molested, sexually molested, without a doubt. And he was just giggling,” she said.
A spokeswoman for Ali, who is now 81 and resides in Greenwich, Conn., refuted the charges from Ms. McIlquham and others. “The alleged incidents simply never occurred,” the spokesperson stated in a statement. “Mr. Fayed is not a perpetrator and will not be scapegoated. He is going to vigorously defend himself against these unsupported allegations.
The billionaire former chairman of Harrods, Mohamed al-Fayed, was shown in a September BBC broadcast to have mistreated women for decades before to his death in 2023. He groomed and exploited them through his enterprises, as more than 20 women reported being raped or sexually attacked by him. He was “an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated,” according to Harrods, who expressed regret.
However, in the months that have followed, a number of female former workers have come forward to claim that they were also abused by his brothers, Ali and Salah, who passed away in 2010, further escalating a controversy that initially seemed to be focused on a single individual.
The tragic past of the Fayed family and the famous department store they owned may still have consequences for Ali, the sole surviving brother. Three women, including Ms. McIlquham, told the BBC last month that Ali had sexually abused them during their time working for Harrods in the 1990s.
According to Ms. McIlquham, she thinks the events that befell her in Switzerland were part of a larger scheme to exploit women at Fayed-owned businesses. Ali “operated this system to his advantage,” according to her.
Ms. McIlquham and others have come forward to blame not just Ali but also the physicians, recruiters, human resource specialists, and others who allowed the alleged abuse at the Fayeds’ companies.
A pattern of exploitation at Harrods and the Ritz Paris, a hotel the brothers also controlled, is shown by court documents and accounts provided to The New York Times by three other women who said that Mohamed or Salah had targeted them. Their claims are further supported by documents, emails, and supporting information from other women.
Although it would not comment on specific incidents, Harrods, which is currently owned by Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, stated that it “supports the bravery of all survivors in coming forward.”
A representative for Harrods stated, “Their claims raise serious allegations against his brothers, Salah and Ali Fayed, and point to the breadth of abuse by Mohamed Fayed.”
