[1] He was a merchant in China for a period and in the mid 1880s worked in London for the former Hong Kong Bank chairman, Baron Adolf von André.

[4][Note 1] In 1889 he was appointed a director of Trustees, Executors, and Securities Insurance Corporation (Limited), a business that made money from promoting and underwriting companies.

[6] Other holders of founders' shares included three directors of Harrod's Store: Alfred J. Newton, Edgar Cohen and Sir James Bailey.

Harrod was asked to return and he recommended a new general manager be appointed called Richard Burbidge who had worked for Whiteley's - one of the largest stores in London.

[11] Following on from their success with Harrods, Mendel and his partners promoted the stock market flotation of several other retail outlets in the 1890s, invariably taking founders' shares.

This was avoided with a compromise agreed between the parties but Alfred Newton, who had just been elected Lord Mayor of London, asked for the case be re-opened so that the whole matter could be given a public hearing.

[24] During the case, evidence was given that Mendel had written to several of the influential newspapers of the period, asking for favourable reviews of the flotation, and these letters were followed up with financial inducements.

He said that the memorandum of articles of association were a scandal; they gave Mendel and André the same voting rights as the shareholders and another clause excused the directors from any liability.

The Investors' Review of October 1898 attempted to identify their involvements with mining companies in Western Australia but found it almost impossible to untangle the web of dealings.