LETTERS The trouble with Tootsie
Sir: The point of interest is whether we should feel sorry for Mr Fayed, as your Fayed article (`The case for Mohamed', 12 October) invites us to do. Is Mr Fayed the solution to corruption, or is he part of the problem?
Mr Steven, who is working for Mr Fayed, paints a picture of Mohamed suffering the attacks of racists and snobs whom he has done nothing to provoke, while he has been `batting for Britain'. This is sweet, but is history reinvented.
When I met Mohamed, or Tootsie as he has always been known to me, he was one of many comfortably off commission agents and he built a career by working for two well connected principals, Adnan Khashoggi of Saudi Arabia and, later, Mandi Al Tajir of Dubai. Major building contracts for the infrastructure of the Gulf were placed by Tajir, and Mr Fayed made a percentage and received other payments from firms such as Costain and Sunley. At that time 25 years ago — he was living in a flat in Park Lane after leaving Haiti in a hurry.
Mr Fayed's actual background is not a problem for me. My problem began when Tootsie invented a prestigious business empire, stretching back to his grandfather, solely to satisfy the requirements of the Department of Trade, who had a duty to ensure that major British businesses passed to those qualified by experience and repu- tation to run them. Tootsie's objective was to gain permission to take over House of Fraser, which was the largest department store group in Europe.
I did not ask Tootsie to submit a pack of lies to the Department of Trade. He did it himself, and told the press the same fable. I had the strongest objection to the DTI holding several lengthy inquiries into Lon- rho's bid for House of Fraser and zero inquiries into the fantasy business of Mohamed Al Fayed and, in the circum- stances, the criticisms I made on behalf of Lonrho were restrained. They were based on research by a legal team and accoun- tants. In Egypt we fortunately had official assistance from the President's office. Everything that was first put forward to the Department of Trade and later printed was comprehensively ignored. For example, an open letter to Tim Smith MP, which was circulated through the House of Commons in January 1989, asked how much he had taken from Mr Fayed to raise libellous questions in the House against Lonrho and me. Tim Smith did not resign until 1994, when he admitted it.
With the long-term support of Mrs Thatcher, Norman Tebbit, David Young, Leon Brittan, Cecil Parkinson, Lord McAlpine, Gordon Reece, Tim Bell and so on, Tootsie took over a famous and prof- itable British business by deception. The Inquiry — very much later — into the take- over was specifically extended to afford him and his well-known solicitors, Herbert Smith, every chance to come forward with counter-evidence. He could not. Even the judges of the European Court of Human Rights have unanimously found that Mr Fayed was fairly treated by the Inquiry. Even Tootsie's brother and his son, whom I met by chance in Monte Carlo only a few weeks ago, say that he has every reason to be grateful to the British Government and to me for taking him from a deserved obscurity and catapulting him to an unsus- tainable level.
Mr Steven may attempt to believe his new employer, but he could have read the files before writing an article for you. He deserves a supper as elaborate as his song. As ever, • not a word of mine about Mr Fayed has been challenged — I'm direct, because I'm right. Tootsie Fayed is a one- off whom I quite like and who fits happily into my phone book. Unfortunately he believes himself at his most unbelievable. R.W. Rowland
Hedsor Wharf, Bourne-End-on-Thames, Buckinghamshire
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