OFFSHORE OGRE: Victims of Mohamed Fayed may struggle to get compensation out of his estate

The Qataris are a softer touch, as owners of the victims' employer with the money to pay. The store paid a £180m dividend in each of the past two years and had £51m in cash at its financial year end last February. The Qataris, suffering global collateral damage, will no doubt be eager to settle.

Not so the Fayeds. But suing the Fayed estate would be a whole different story.

Luxury hideaways
Despite UK assets – a Scottish castle, a Surrey mansion and Park Lane apartments – these are all down offshore rabbit holes, held by family trusts and companies spread between Jersey, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands.

Fayed was rarely declared to be the personal owner of any major asset in the years since he bought Harrods with other people's money (the Sultan of Brunei?) in 1985. So legal action could be hard to get off the ground here on jurisdictional grounds, and might involve highly expensive international litigation – not, perhaps, a first choice for those funding the massed lawyers.

Balnagown Castle, where some of the victims say they were assaulted, illustrates the problem. The Highlands estate is owned by Bocardo SA, a Liechtenstein company in turn owned by the Ocarina Settlement, also in the secrecy haven which makes next-door Switzerland seem a blabbermouth. The trust is "for the benefit of the Al Fayed family" – as it was before Fayed's death. Bocardo is also the owner of the Barrow Green Court estate in Surrey.

The Park Lane apartment blocks are owned by Prestige Properties SA, another resident of the Liechtenstein capital Vaduz. But according to the latest accounts for Hyde Park Residence, which manages the multiple apartments, Prestige "is under the control and held for the benefit of the estate of Mohamed Al Fayed and his family".

Fayed was listed as the 50 percent owner of Hyde Park Residence at his death in August last year. His share was only transferred to Prestige in July. Prestige is ultimately owned by Mafco SA in the BVI. There are other property assets in France and New York.

Paris match
The Ritz Hotel in Paris, which also features in the victims' accusations, is owned by a UK company. That is ultimately owned by Ritz (Paris) Holdings in Jersey and RH Paris 1 SARL in Luxembourg for "the benefit of Mrs Heini Al Fayed [Fayed's widow] and her family" – sons Karim and Omar and daughters Camilla and Jasmine. There have been reports, even before Fayed's death, that this is a far from a happy family.

The Harrods sale in 2010 netted around £900m, after the debt assumed by the Qataris, for the Fayed trusts. At the end of the ownership road from Knightsbridge was Mafco Holdings in Bermuda, which was "controlled and held for the benefit of the Fayed family". The same company was the ultimate owner of Fulham football club, which Fayed sold in 2013 for £121m.

Where there are wills…
There has been no word of a Fayed will since his death. There could be more than one, given the spread of assets in jurisdictions where such personal matters are kept private. Although living in Britain since the 1970s, Fayed remained an Egyptian national, never getting the British passport he craved. His reputation as a serial sex abuser did not help.

A "non-dom" candidate and former Swiss tax resident, Fayed might have been caught by the deemed domicile rule and inheritance tax after he returned in 2005 – reason to limit personally owned assets outside the trust structures. Offshore trustees can decide who beneficially owns what, which creates another barrier to fend off claimants.

Meanwhile the Qataris are not going anywhere, and they have deep enough pockets.

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