Sheikh that owns Qatari jet gifted to Trump embroiled in $20M luxury hotel spat

New York Post

15-05-2025

The Qatari sheikh who is gifting a $400 million plane that's slated to become President Donald Trump's next Air Force One has previously faced allegations of corruption and antisemitism — and is now embroiled in a $20 million legal dispute over a string of luxury hotels, The Post has learned.
A Boeing 747-8 jet that has been dubbed a 'flying palace' is owned by the Qatari royal family.
It still carries the initials of one of its leading members — Qatar's former prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, also known as HBJ, in its tail number, aviation records show.
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8 President Donald Trump was in Qatar on Wednesday where he felt heat for agreeing to accept a donated Qatari plane to become the next Air Force One presidential jet.
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The 66-year-old royal — worth an estimated $4 billion according to Forbes — has been branded the 'Thief of Doha' by a Washington think tank, and allegedly brought senior members of Hamas to the Qatari capital.
He was accused by the DOJ of presiding over bribery and corruption when he led the bid to bring the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
HBJ also drew controversy last year over an antisemitic tirade in an interview with Kuwati media outlet Al-Qabas.
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'Imagine oil was sold by some Jews…what would be the price of a barrel oil? It would be the most expensive thing in the world,' the former Qatari PM was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, HBJ is now facing a fresh lawsuit from Irish property developer Paddy McKillen, who owns the Church of Oak whiskey distillery 40 miles southwest of Dublin with Irish rock legend Bono of U2.
The Belfast-born hotelier has accused the Gulf state's monarchy in Los Angeles federal court of 'a lawless plot' to rip him off after he masterminded the expansion of a string of five-star hotels.
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The complaint, filed late last month, focuses on a claim that three Qatari royals led by HBJ tricked McKillen and his firm Hume Street Management Consultants (HSMC) into spending 'significant resources' under 'false pretenses' to upgrade four upmarket properties.
The civil suit for $20 million in damages and interest is being brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, anti-Mafia legislation drawn up in 1970 under President Richard Nixon.
8 Britain's Guardian newspaper once dubbed HBJ, seen here with ex-UK PM David Cameron, as 'the man who bought London' after Qatar's sovereign wealth fund snapped up Harrods, London's Olympic Village and the Shard.
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8 The plane, owned by the Qatari royal family, has been dubbed 'a flying palace,' and its tail number carries the initials of HBJ, the ex-PM of the Gulf Nation.
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Once a project had been completed, the lawsuit alleges that HBJ and his two relatives, Qatar's former Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa and the current Emir's sister, Sheikha Lulwah bint Hamad Al Thani, refused to pay up.
It said the royal trio 'systematically stonewalled Mr. McKillen and HSMC, refusing to compensate them for many millions of dollars in services in bad faith.'
The Post reached out to the Qatari government for comment.
8 This image, posted in 2020, shows the ornate and lavish decor that appears to have caught teh commander-in-chief's eye as he looks to replace the ageing Air Force One plane that the White House currently uses.
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Michael Gottlieb, a partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher law firm, who is representing the hotelier, accused the Qatari royals of believing 'they were above the law because of their wealth and power.'
'Mr. McKillen will not be cowed, and will pursue this suit until the defendants pay what his company rightfully earned,' he told The Post.
McKillen sold his majority stake in the Maybourne Hotel Group in 2015 to a company controlled by the ex-PM, the lawsuit states, but he stayed on in a property development role with the firm.
The court documents claim that McKillen would continue to receive a 'deferred payment' for 'any net increase in the value of the Maybourne Hotel Group' over a period ending in April 2022.
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8 McKillen is a business partner of Bono, the Irish rockstar and U2 frontman.
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8 McKillen and U2 frontman Bono own a whiskey distillery near Dublin, Ireland.
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They allege that McKillen 'continued to manage and redevelop the Maybourne hotels, at the direction of the Qatari Royals' and even developed an entirely new property, The Emory, an all-suite hotel close to the British capital's Hyde Park that features designs from artist Damien Hirst, according to the same source.
His legal team alleges that the Qataris then 'refused to compensate Mr. McKillen or HSMC for nearly all their efforts and absconded with their vision and hard work, essentially free of charge.'
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The two sides fell out, the lawsuit alleges, when McKillen was 'removed, without warning or reason, from Maybourne Hotels Limited's board of directors on April 1, 2022.'
'These schemes to defraud their business partner and his company for, put crudely, free labor are part of a years-long pattern of illegal racketeering orchestrated by the Qatari Royals, and are in line with a history of illicit, lawless actions,' the lawsuit states.
8 Beverly Hills City Councilmember John A. Mirisch, a former mayor of the city, was the first politician to hit out at Maybourne owner Hamad bin Jassim's anti-semitic remarks.
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McKillen alleges that he was drafted in by the Qataris to overhaul the Maybourne Riviera hotel in 2018 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, close to Monaco, and a five-story, $47 million Manhattan mansion owned by HBJ.
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The former Qatari prime minister bought the 22,000 square-foot townhouse on East 71st Street in 2012 from the billionaire real estate tycoon Aby Rosen.
The following year, his attorneys claim, they asked him to work on the redevelopment of the historic Parisian Îlot Saint-Germain building, which is set to open as a Maybourne hotel in 2027, and the Maybourne Beverly Hills hotel in 2019.
8 McKillen also worked on top London hotels, including the Connaught in the British capital's upmarket neighborhood of Mayfair.
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McKillen also worked on two properties in London's upmarket neighborhood of Mayfair: the Connaught and Claridge's, where penthouse suites can go for nearly $80,000 a night.
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Claridge's is a hotspot for the British elite as it is where the late Queen Elizabeth II hosted a wedding reception for the then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1981.
Work done on those properties does not feature in the Los Angeles legal complaint, but the millionaire investor has also filed claims in the UK and France.