Multiple female ex-employees have accused Mohamed Al Fayed, the late billionaire and former chairman of Harrods, a luxury United Kingdom (UK) department store, of rape.
Fayed died last year at the age of 94.
The BBC said a documentary and podcast — Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods — gathered evidence that during Fayed’s ownership, Harrods not only failed to intervene but helped cover up abuse allegations.
One woman said Fayed raped her at his Park Lane apartment, while another, who said the late billionaire assaulted her when she was a teenager, described him as a “monster”.
“A sexual predator with no moral compass whatsoever,” she added, saying all the staff at Harrods were his “playthings”.
“We were all so scared. He actively cultivated fear. If he said ‘jump’ employees would ask ‘how high’.”
Fayed owned Harrods for 26 years and later owned Fulham Football Club and the Paris Ritz.
Former staff told the BBC that the businessman would regularly tour the department store’s vast sales floors and identify young female assistants he found attractive, who would then be promoted to work in his offices upstairs.
The assaults would be carried out in Harrods’ offices, his London apartment, or on foreign trips—often in Paris at the Ritz hotel, which he also owned, or his nearby Villa Windsor property.
On Friday, lawyers representing the assaulted employees said many of them were aged between 19 and 24 when they started working for Fayed.
Some were as young as 15 and 16, the lawyers added.
Fayed sold Harrods to the Qatar royal family in a deal reported to be worth around 1.5 billion pounds in 2010.
The new owners issued a statement saying they were “utterly appalled” by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Fayed.
“These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated, and we condemn them in the strongest terms,” the statement said.
“The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010, it is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.”
The store offered its sincere apologises, saying it was prioritising settling claims in the quickest way possible to avoid “lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved”.
Forbes said Fayed’s net worth was around $2 billion when he died.