As Irish hotelier Patrick McKillen said, he met the former Qatar chief on a yacht in Doha and discussed business opportunities in California, more than 8,000 miles away.
McKillen and Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa al Thani were discussing the purchase of the Beverly Hills Hotel, which McKillen said was working on management and redevelopment.
Now the hotel – Maybourne Beverly Hills – is at the heart of a civil assault complaint filed Tuesday in the Central District of California. McKillen has accused the Qatar royal family of scaming him and the hundreds of millions of dollars of companies to complete his company with several luxury items.
In the lawsuit, McKillen, who is reportedly co-owned with U2 frontman Bono and the whiskey distillery, said he and his team “have made a massive redevelopment effort” at the Beverly Hills Hotel, where rooms go over $1,000 a night per night, but are allegedly finished work.
McKillen, a citizen of Ireland and the UK, has brought complaints against senior members of the royal family, including Hamad bin Khalifa. Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabba Al Thani, former prime minister known as “HBJ.” So are family agents, representatives, and businesses managed.
In a complaint covering allegations already in courts around the world, McKillen argues that the plan for him and his company, Hume Street Management Consultant Limited, is “part of a long-standing pattern of illegal assault overseen by the Katari royal family, alongside the history of illegal history.”
McKillen’s lawyer declined to comment.
“This is the latest in many empty claims made by Paddy McKillen and related parties across multiple jurisdictions, all of which have been ongoing or struck by court,” the Maborn Hotel Group, owned by Katari, said in a statement. “Like any other claim, we challenge this latest claim and prove that the allegation is completely false.”
The federal lawsuit filed in Los Angeles is McKillen’s latest lawsuit in a long-standing legal dispute with the Qatar royal family, and is the dispute that has made headlines around the world. He submitted actions in the United States, France and the UK.
Maybourne Beverly Hills is also the subject of a contract litigation violation filed by McKillen’s company in Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2022. The court rejected a motion by the hotel-owning company and forced McKillen’s company to arbitrate. The decision is appealed.
“McKillen appears to prefer to continue the actions he has begun in the US, the UK and France and file a lawsuit in the media rather than awaiting their outcome,” said Jason D. Russell, who represents Hamad bin Jassim in California’s actions, in an email. “Our clients, like the countless others he has filed, are confident that these claims are known to be deemed by the court or by the arbitrator.”
Earlier this year, the London High Court is confident that, according to court documents, McKillen’s company, which serves claims regarding Hamad bin Jasim outside its jurisdiction, has obtained permission to request for Hamad bin Jasim and has failed to provide a true prospect of success. The claim linked the development of Hamad bin Jassim’s privately owned land in London for around £3.6 million (approximately $4.8 million). The company’s appeal was denied earlier this month, according to British court records.
McKillen was also found guilty in Paris for being physically and verbally offensive by a executor at an apartment in the city due to allegedly non-payment of loans to Luxembourg-based Quintet Private Bank.
McKillen’s lawyers told the enforcement officer during his Ireland that his client “vehemently denied violence and misconduct,” claiming that the allegations against him were “false.” McKillen, who was reportedly fined 10,000 euros (about $11,377) for the incident, sued the conviction.
By the time the Qatar royal family approached McKillen about a California hotel in 2019, he said he had been working on projects with them for years.
According to a federal complaint filed in California in 2004, McKillen acquired stakes in a group of luxury hotels that became known as the Mabourne Hotel Group. Despite later selling the group’s shares to a company owned by Hamad bin Jasim, McKillen said he continued to manage and redevelop the Maybourne Hotel Group and its hotels and redevelop them in the direction of the Royals.
According to the complaint, Hamad bin Khalifa later became interested in the Maybourne Hotel Group.
McKillen said he and his company were tasked with managing and redeveloping the renovation and redeveloping the Manhattan mansion owned by Hamad bin Jassim in 2018. Construction and development of a new Paris hotel on the grounds of the historic Ilotto Saint-Germain building in 2019. Management and redevelopment of the new brand, Mabon Beverly Hills Hotel, in 2019.
For each of these projects, the Qatar royal family said they would be compensated through the fees for the services he was carried out, but at one point he argues that “the Catari Royals have secretly decided that they would not in fact compensate Mr McKillen or HSMC.” McKillen alleged in the complaint that he and his company had bumped into being paid in line with “under false statements.”
The complaint details the October 2019 meeting on yachts in Doha, Qatar, between MacKillen and Hamad bin Khalifa, discussing the opportunity for the royal family to acquire the California hotel known as Montage Beverly Hills.
McKillen presented Hamad bin Khalifa with his vision for the hotel, saying that he “gives his commitment to managing and strategically redeveloping.” According to the complaint, a holding company owned by Hamad bin Khalifa purchased the hotel later that year.
In the complaint, McKillen said that family representatives confirmed he and his company will be compensated at the fees paid for work carried out at the hotel. Over the next two years, McKillen said he and his team moved the hotel to the Maybourne brand and led the development and management of the hotel.
According to the complaint, McKillen submitted a fee proposal to the Altani family advisor in July 2021, saying that his company paid $6 million in quarterly project management fees from January 2020 to January 2025. McKillen wrote to Hamad bin Khalifa and Hamad bin Jasim after months had not paid.
According to the complaint, McKillen later sent an additional invoice of $12 million in project management fees for work carried out in California in 2020 and 2021. He claims that none of these fees have been paid.
Qatar Royals face another legal battle over the Mabourne Riviera after French authorities allegedly violated plans and environmental regulations and illegally constructed land exposed to “earthquake risk,” according to an article in the Alish Times. The newspaper reported that the Al Tani family representatives had denounced McKillen at a recent hearing.
McKillen spoke about the news outlet, which said the alleged violations occurred two years after he was fired from the project in April 2022.
“The damage was done after we left,” he told the outlet. “The French state is not suing me. It is suing Catalis.”
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