Irish hotelier Patrick McKillen once enjoyed a close relationship with Qatari royals, frequently traveling to Doha to discuss high-end property developments in prestigious locations like London, Paris, and the French Riviera.
Now 70, Mr. McKillen is suing these influential Qatari family members, claiming they orchestrated a multi-year plot to avoid paying him millions for his consulting, renovation leadership, and property improvement services on their luxurious hotels and apartments worldwide.
In the lawsuit filed in a California federal court, Mr. McKillen’s lawyers specifically named Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani (the former Qatari emir) and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani (the former prime minister), among others. McKillen’s legal team describes their actions as a “global scheme” to secure free labor, characterizing it as part of a “years-long pattern of illegal racketeering.”
The lawsuit further alleges that defrauding Mr. McKillen is merely one instance in a “laundry list of illegal acts” supposedly directed by the Qatari royals to expand their wealth and geopolitical influence.
Representatives for the accused Qataris have not yet commented on the lawsuit. However, a spokesperson for a royal-family-owned hotel group central to the dispute vehemently denied the accusations, calling them “entirely false.”
Legal experts specializing in racketeering cases acknowledge that such claims face a tough battle to reach trial, requiring extreme specificity to demonstrate a prolonged pattern of illegal activity. The plaintiff, Mr. McKillen, is seeking triple the actual damages.
Undeterred by the daunting legal fight against powerful opponents, Mr. McKillen stated, “Where I come from, we don’t like bullies. We stand up to them.”
The case, filed in California due to the Qatari royals’ business activities and interactions there, details a decade-long saga of the family acquiring billions in global properties and boosting their international standing.
Mr. McKillen and the Qatari royals are involved in multiple international lawsuits. This latest filing consolidates his various grievances into a single conspiracy claim, adding a new accusation of hacking and a disinformation campaign by royal agents.
An accompanying image shows Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the former Qatari emir, and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, the former prime minister, in Doha in 2013.
The lawsuit emerges amidst increased global scrutiny of Qatar and its rulers. The wealthy Persian Gulf nation has been actively expanding its international influence through diplomacy and significant real estate investments, serving as a key mediator in high-profile conflicts, including those between Israel and Hamas, and Russia and Ukraine, thereby solidifying powerful alliances.
Former President Trump, who previously criticized Qatar as a “funder of terrorism,” visited the country in May, seemingly endorsing its diplomatic efforts. Notably, Mr. Trump received a Qatari plane as a gift that summer, a jet previously identified with the registration “A7-HBJ,” linked to the former prime minister named in McKillen’s lawsuit.
Mr. McKillen’s association with the Qatari royals began during his own legal battle in 2015 for control of London’s Claridge’s and its sister hotels, then part of the Maybourne Hotel Group, in which he also held a stake. This earlier dispute concluded with McKillen’s adversaries selling their shares to a Qatari hotel entity.
After selling his shares, Mr. McKillen agreed to a deferred payment based on the hotel group’s increased value from his renovations, with payment due by early 2022. This common arrangement extended his ties with the Qatari partners for years.
The lawsuit contends that this deferred payment structure was exploited by the Qataris, allowing them to repeatedly entice Mr. McKillen into new projects without compensation.
For years, Mr. McKillen successfully managed and redeveloped Maybourne’s London hotels. In 2018, the Qatari royals expanded his role, engaging him for work on the Maybourne Riviera Hotel in France, a Manhattan mansion, and later, additional projects in Paris and Beverly Hills.
Another image depicts the elegant Maybourne Riviera Hotel in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.
Despite multiple attempts, Mr. McKillen claims he was repeatedly denied payment for these projects, which he asserts were separate from the 2015 share sale agreement. He received only reassurances from the royals and outright denials from their representatives.
The complaint explicitly states, “For each project, the Qatari royals represented to Mr. McKillen at the outset that he would be compensated via fees for services performed,” but “they systematically stonewalled.”
The working relationship, however, persisted. But in 2022, Mr. McKillen was abruptly removed from the hotel group’s board, and the Qataris severed all ties. The lawsuit alleges that the stated reasons for his ousting were false and that, in spring, his former partners launched a hacking and disinformation campaign. This campaign reportedly involved breaking into his assistant’s computer, downloading private data, and using it for “planted” negative articles about the hotelier.
Steven Block, a former federal prosecutor now defending against civil claims, observed that Mr. McKillen’s lawsuit appears to meet the initial legal requirements for racketeering cases.
However, Mr. Block emphasized the inherent difficulty in winning such cases, given the high financial stakes and rigorous scrutiny by courts.
Jeffrey E. Grell, a lawyer and author on racketeering, noted that these lawsuits are sometimes strategically filed to “break a log jam and move settlement conversations toward some resolution.”
He concluded, “In my experience, that strategy sometimes works and sometimes it doesn’t.”
In response, a representative for the Maybourne Hotel Group dismissed Mr. McKillen’s suit as “the latest of many vacuous and hateful claims,” confirming their intent to contest it vigorously.