Bono’s billionaire property investor pal Paddy McKillen paid an orthodox LA-based rabbi to fly to London to protest outside of Claridges to try and pressure to Royal as a publicity stunt in his ongoing legal battle with the former Prime Minister of Qatar.
Property and hotel magnate McKillen – who was recently convicted of violently assaulting a female bailiff in Paris – is locked in a long-running battle with Claridge’s owner Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, who is known as HBJ for short.
McKillen – who was first introduced to the Qatari Royal by Tony Blair – encouraged orthodox rabbi Pini Dunner and his son to London to organise the protest outside Claridges, where a dozen pro-Israel protestors stood with banners accusing HBJ of funding Hamas last weekend on Mother’s Day and covered his travel expenses.
McKillen, 70, has been paying an LA based PR outfit Miller Ink – via an LA law firm – to bankroll Dunner, the rabbi of Beverly Hill California orthodox synagogue, to organise weekly protests outside HBJ’s $118m (£91.2m) home and his chain of luxury LA hotels, as well as to post about the Qatari royal and his family on his X account ahead of an upcoming arbitration hearing taking place in London on the legal dispute which is set to take place in London later this year.
The rabbi, a staunch supporter of Israel, previously authored a book with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in 2020 – and has recently been lobbying the Donald Trump administration to clampdown on the Qatari Royals’ US visas.
Dunner receives a $10,000 (£7,730) monthly retainer from PR firm Miller Ink, whose services are retained – for $35,000 (£27,060) a month – through law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher who represent McKillen in one of his many legal disputes he filed against HBJ.
McKillen, who owns a whisky distillery in Ireland with U2’s Bono, and a friend of Robert Downey Jnr has been in a dispute with HBJ since 2022 ever since his contract with Maybourne Group expired and is pursuing him for legal action in at least seven cases, across LA, New York, London and Paris.
As part of his monthly retainer, Dunner – who is British-born and the son of holocaust survivors – has been vocally lobbying against HBJ, accusing the Qatari of being a Hamas supporter.
The Dunner-organised weekly protests outside his Bel Air mansion generally last 30 minutes and are attended by a handful of individuals from local Jewish and pro-Israel groups in LA.
Clips from the protests, which are documented and attended by Miller Ink CEO Nathan Miller, are uploaded to Dunner’s X account, which has more than 8,000 followers.
Miller often takes the pictures which are then distributed to the media.
Dunner also posts videos of the protests to his YouTube account which has more than 4,700 subscribers.
The rabbi posts frequently on X to accuse HBJ – who served as Doha’s prime minister from 2007 to 2013 – of being a terror supporter and to attack the Qatari Royal and members of his family.
The latest PR stunt in London is part of McKillen’s long-running dispute with HBJ – who served as Doha’s prime minister from 2007 to 2013.
A source close to the legal case said it was ‘distasteful’ and ‘hypocritical’ that a man of God is taking money ‘to be part of a dirty tricks campaign’.
McKillen – who was once financially-backed to the tune of €50m (£418.3m) by HBJ through a company, Selene, in 2014 to help pay off his debts – is facing a string of public financial setbacks in his business portfolio was recently fined €10,000 (£8,370) in Paris earlier this month for ‘violence against [a] public official’.
McKillen had attacked Anna Cohen-Bacri, 33, on 25 June last year. McKillen was ordered to pay her €1,500 (£1,255) in damages and costs.
Cohen-Bacri, who was visibly pregnant as she sat in the Paris courtroom, told how she was set upon by Mr McKillen on June 25 last year after he had returned from a business trip in Japan.
She was acting in relation to the alleged non-payment of a loan to the Qatari-linked Quintet private bank, it was alleged.
McKillen – who appealed the decision – found her ‘inside his home with the door ajar’, Ms Cohen-Bacri said. He then repeatedly screamed, ‘F***ing bailiff!’ and ‘F*** you, bailiff!’ in English.
McKillen and HBJ’s legal battle has been playing out for the past three years.
The main case centres on a billion pound-plus arbitration in London over the uplift in value of the Maybourne group, which owns several top five-star London hotels, from 2015 to 2022. McKillen was ousted from the board in 2022.
Maybourne’s London stable includes Claridge’s, The Connaught, The Berkeley and The Emory.
In an interview in 2023, McKillen described how the Qataris ‘policy is to drag me through the courts. But I’m big and ugly enough to fight them at their own game.’
McKillen recently lost a case against HBJ in London for unpaid consultancy fees for his company – Hume Street Management Consultants’ – work on HBJ’s Belgravia home, Forbes House.
The 19th century mansion, which is minutes from Buckingham Palace, was dubbed ‘London’s first £300m home.
A High Court Judge in London ruled that his €4.5m (£3.69m) claim had “failed… to show that there is a serious issue to be tried on the merits of the claim…’
The Belfast-born businessman was ordered to pay the bulk of HBJ’s legal costs.
Dunner’s grandfather, Rabbi Josef Hirsch Dunner, was the last Chief Rabbi of East Prussia before World War II.
Earlier this month, the Irish Business Post reported that Frenchgate Interchange Limited, a firm controlled by McKillen, defaulted on tens of millions of euros worth of loans before it wound up last year.
The group, which is linked to the Frenchgate Shopping Centre in Doncaster – which was sold to Mike Ashley – owed £196.3m to its lenders at the end of 2023.