\n<\/p>\n
Harrods is seeking to recover the cost of the compensation paid to hundreds of women allegedly sexually abused by Mohamed Al Fayed from his estate, the Guardian understands.<\/p>\n
The luxury department store is seeking full indemnity from the late billionaire\u2019s estate for any settlements it is required to pay, according to evidence seen by the Guardian.<\/p>\n
Survivors of Fayed\u2019s alleged abuse said the retailer\u2019s plan to recover its compensation costs was distressing and at odds with its public acceptance of responsibility.<\/p>\n
Lucy Traynor, a senior associate at KP Law, which represents the majority of known survivors, said: \u201cHarrods publicly says that it accepts responsibility for the abuse suffered by survivors. However, its lawyers have confirmed that Harrods intends to seek a full indemnity from Mohamed Al Fayed\u2019s estate for any compensation it is required to pay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf successful, that would mean Harrods recovering the entirety of those compensation payments from the estate and bearing no ultimate financial consequence itself. Its present position is that, despite its statements about accepting responsibility, it intends to seek recovery from the estate of every pound it pays in compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traynor said Harrods\u2019 intention to fully indemnify itself was \u201cdifficult to reconcile with its public statements about institutional responsibility and accountability\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said the allegations concerning Harrods went beyond \u201cAl Fayed as an individual who owned the business\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurvivors have raised serious questions about the environment in which this was able to happen, the role of others within the organisation, what was known or ought to have been known, and whether institutional structures facilitated or failed to prevent his conduct,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
If Harrods were successful, the claims of survivors who were only seeking compensation from the estate could be affected, Traynor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny attempt by Harrods to recover substantial sums from the estate could reduce the assets available to meet those survivors\u2019 claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, Harrods said: \u201cOur priority is to ensure all eligible survivors receive compensation for abuses perpetrated by Fayed, and Harrods continue to settle claims.\u201d<\/p>\n
The store has previously accepted \u201cvicarious liability\u201d for the sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by Fayed, and condemned it.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Mohamed al Fayed, pictured in 2003. His alleged actions include rape and human trafficking.<\/span> Photograph: Murdo Macleod\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Earlier this week, KP Law said compensation claims against Harrods and the estate by 275 of the survivors it represents could reach up to \u00a3150m.<\/p>\n Fayed, who died aged 94 in 2023, has been accused of rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation and human trafficking from 1977 to 2014. Survivors claim that Harrods did not adequately address the allegations for years.<\/p>\n Two years ago, Harrods opened an investigation into whether any of its current staff were \u201cdirectly or indirectly involved\u201d in the alleged sexual abuse of women by Fayed. An employee had left the business in 2025 in relation to that investigation, the store later said.<\/p>\n The retailer created its own compensation scheme for survivors last year, which closed to new claims in March. Its latest accounts showed it had paid out \u00a34.1m from the \u00a357m it set aside for compensation in 2025. The store added that it had made settlements with 113 women to date, but did not disclose the total amount paid.<\/p>\n In 2023 the Sunday Times reported that Fayed\u2019s fortune was \u00a31.69bn, making him the fourth richest person in Scotland at that time.<\/p>\n Last year, Harrods made a passing-over application (POA) to appoint special executors to administer Fayed\u2019s estate, replacing family members. The department store said this was necessary to protect assets and to ensure the estate could pay compensation \u201cin a timely and appropriate manner\u201d. A high court hearing is scheduled for November.<\/p>\n Harrods\u2019 statement added: \u201cTo our knowledge, the Fayed estate has not publicly acknowledged abuses, nor apologised or settled a single claim. The POA seeks the appointment of an independent executor to administer claims against the estate, therefore, any financial recovery for compensation to survivors of Fayed\u2019s abuses remains a number of legal steps away.\u201d<\/p>\n Shanta Sundarason, who says she was sexually assaulted by Fayed in his office when she worked as a designer at Harrods, said the store\u2019s plan to recover the costs of compensation was \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMy abuse did not happen in some separate world belonging only to Mohamed Al Fayed. Harrods was not simply the backdrop to what happened to me, it was the environment in which I was recruited, selected, controlled and ultimately abused,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n <\/span>Shanta Sundarason called the store\u2019s plan \u2018deeply disturbing\u2019.<\/span> Photograph: KP Law<\/p>\n \u201cHarrods cannot tell me that it accepts institutional responsibility for what happened to me, while simultaneously seeking to ensure that the institution ultimately bears none of the financial consequence. For me, accountability is not simply writing a cheque and then recovering every penny from someone else.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened to me was not simply the act of one individual. My abuse existed within a system. From Mohamed Al Fayed\u2019s security detail and office staff to management and the structures surrounding him, it took more than one person to create an environment in which abuse could occur and remain hidden.\u201d<\/p>\n A former employee named Catherine, who says she was sexually abused by Fayed when she worked as his personal assistant between 1990 and 1991, described Harrods\u2019 plan to recover compensation costs from the estate as \u201ctruly sickening\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHarrods have stated that they are sorry but [are] doing everything they can to escape paying anything and it\u2019s simply not right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The estate was approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Harrods is seeking to recover the cost of the compensation paid to hundreds of women allegedly sexually abused by Mohamed Al Fayed from his estate, the Guardian understands. The luxury department store is seeking full indemnity from the late billionaire\u2019s estate for any settlements it is required to pay, according to evidence seen by the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[682,3021,305,709,25339,5324,5325,8874,2184],"class_list":{"0":"post-52301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-abuse","9":"tag-compensation","10":"tag-costs","11":"tag-estate","12":"tag-fayeds","13":"tag-harrods","14":"tag-mohamed","15":"tag-recover","16":"tag-seeks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/52302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}