Mohamed al-Fayed, the Egyptian billionaire who promoted a discredited conspiracy theory that the British royal family was behind the deaths of his son and Princess Diana, has died, Fulham Football Club said in a statement.

“On behalf of everyone at Fulham Football Club, I would like to extend my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mohamed Al Fayed at the news of his death at the age of 94,” said Shahid Khan, who succeeded Al Fayed as owner of the London football club.

Al-Fayed, who was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria, began his career selling sodas before working as a sewing machine salesman. He built his fortune through businesses in real estate, shipping and construction, first in the Middle East and then in Europe.

Al-Fayed spent 10 years trying to prove that Diana and her son Dodi were indeed killed in 1997.

Unsupported by any evidence, according to the inquest into Diana’s death, he claimed she was pregnant with Dodi’s child and accused Prince Philip, the Queen’s ex-husband, of ordering British security services to kill her to prevent her marrying a Muslim and giving birth his child .

Like many billionaires, al-Fayed rejected convention. He once said he wanted to be mummified in a golden sarcophagus in a glass pyramid on the roof of the Harrods department store he owned.

At the store, where he instituted a dress code – even for customers – that he personally enforced, he installed a memorial bronze statue of Diana and Dodi dancing under the wings of an albatross.