Hotelier and developer Patrick McKillen has filed a lawsuit against various members of the Qatari royal family and their business associates alleging racketeering and failure to provide compensation for work done by McKillen on The Maybourne Beverly Hills.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on April 22. McKillen, who is a citizen of Ireland and the United Kingdom, is seeking $20 million in damages.
In the suit, attorneys for McKillen outline what they call a “lawless plot” constructed by the defendants to deliberately withhold payment from McKillen while continuing to make use of his services.
“This complaint alleges in detail how Qatar’s former Emir (HBK) and Prime Minister (HBJ), along with other senior members of the Royal family and their executives, have defrauded their business partners around the world and used the assets they control, like the Quintet Bank, to retaliate against and intimidate those who fight back,” said Michael Gottlieb, an attorney for McKillen, in a statement. “Mr. McKillen will pursue this suit until the Qatari Royals pay him what his company rightfully earned.”
Over the past seven years, the suit alleges, various members of the Qatari royal family “orchestrated, directed, and participated in a global scheme to defraud their former business partner, Patrick McKillen, and his company, [Hume Street Management Consultants Limited (HSMC)].”
The Qatari royals named as defendants in the suit include Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad Bin Abdullah Bin Jassim Bin Mohammed Al Thani, known as Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa or HBK; Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Bin Mohammed Bin Thani Al Thani, known as Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim or HBJ; and Sheikha Lulwah Bint Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, HBK’s daughter, known as Sheikha Lulwah.
Business associates of the Qatari royals named in the suit include Michele Faissola and Marc Socker, both of whom are described in the complaint as “agent[s] of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa [and] Sheikha Lulwah.”
McKillen became involved with what would become the Maybourne Hotel Group in 2004, when he joined a group of investors to acquire shares in the Savoy Group. Following the sale of the Savoy Hotel, the group became known as the Maybourne Hotel Group, according to the suit.
McKillen sold his shares in 2015 to a company owned by Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, however McKillen continued to work in a developmental capacity on the hotels.
According to the complaint, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa became interested in purchasing the hotel then called the Montage Beverly Hills in the summer of 2019 in order to turn it into a Maybourne.
Socker and Sheikha Lulwah reached out to McKillen to ascertain his interest in participating in the Beverly Hills project, and to gain his opinion as to whether the hotel would be a good investment.
In October 2019, McKillen traveled to Qatar to discuss the opportunity in person with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa aboard the latter’s yacht, the lawsuit states. McKillen described his ideas for the hotel and “gave his commitment to manage and strategically redevelop the hotel.” Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa proceeded with the purchase in December 2019.
From there, the suit outlines a series of work performed by McKillen on the hotel, including transitioning the hotel to the Maybourne brand, redesigning guest suites, budgeting capital expenditures, planning for the hotel’s shops and parking and “navigating local Beverly planning and permitting requirements related to the redevelopment,” including attending City Council meetings and working with the City Manager and then-mayor.
This work took place, according to the complaint, between January 2020 and January 2022.
According to the lawsuit, McKillen began seeking compensation in June 2021. He allegedly directed his requests to Fassiola, who “refused to pay Mr. McKillen for the work performed.” When McKillen brought this information to Sheikha Lulwah, she reiterated Fassiola’s message.
McKillen’s lawsuit claims that this refusal to pay continued until the present day, with the defendants seeming to indicate that they would pay him at various times and then failing to do so.
The complaint alleges that the defendants decided at some point during their work with McKillen not to pay him, kept that decision a “secret” and continued to utilize McKillen’s services knowing that they did not plan to compensate him.
In addition to the Maybourne Beverly Hills, McKillen’s complaint alleges that the defendants failed to compensate him for similar work on The Maybourne Riviera and Îlot Saint-Germain in France and a personal home of Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim’s in Manhattan.
McKillen has filed additional claims in the U.K. and France, as well as a California state case.
