Racing-mad chameleon who’s lost his biggest gamble
Poet. Country squire. Friend of the Queen. But there was one thing even a mega-rich ruler couldn’t buy...
aviation saw the launch of Emirates airways in 1985 – now one of the biggest airlines in the world.
In 1995 he was made Crown Prince and de facto ruler, succeeding his brother Maktoum to the throne in 2006.
By then the economic miracle that is the modern Dubai was well under way.
It had taken shape under his own auspices – and tight control. If Dubai was to outlive its reliance on oil and become the business and leisure hub of the Gulf, if not the whole of the Middle East, it would have to be noticed. Sheikh Mohammed achieved this with a number of spectacular projects.
There was the sail-shaped hotel Burj Al Arab, off the same Jumeirah beach where he once raced horses, described as the world’s most luxurious.
In 2010 he opened the Burj Khalincludes ifa, the world’s tallest building. The sheikh relaxed visa rules for educated Western expats and allowed the consumption of alcohol in the many resorts and hotels. This was no Saudi Arabia.
As the majority shareholder of Dubai Holding – the emirate’s investment vehicle – much of the income from these ventures flowed into his own coffers. He and his three brothers are said to each make $1million (£770,000) a day from its oil wealth alone.
And a considerable chunk has been invested in his lavish life in the UK. He bought the Longcross estate near Chertsey in Surrey several decades ago. It is now thought to be worth around £75million.
He also owns the 63,000-acre, 30bedroom Inverinate estate in the Scottish Highlands and an £85million townhouse in Kensington, west London. The portfolio horse racing operations in Ireland, the US and Australia, a £385million 500ft superyacht, a fleet of private jets, including at least one Boeing, and more than 100 supercars.
Not all was conspicuous consumption. In 2007 Sheikh Mohammed announced what was then perhaps the biggest philanthropic donation in history.
He would give $10billion (£7.7billion) to set up an educational foundation named after himself. On a smaller scale, in 2017 he gave the Cornish village of Godolphin Cross £100,000 to buy a community hall. Yet a shadow had begun to grow over this splendour, generosity and – along the tourist beaches of Dubai – superficial hedonism.
A series of human rights scandals have rocked Dubai and the UAE. Homosexuality is still illegal and punished with severity.
Free speech is limited and some 250,000 migrant unskilled workers are said to live in conditions which are less than humane. The UAE has also been a major participant in the brutal war in Yemen which has killed thousands of civilians. Campaign group Human Rights Watch says any attempt to paint the UAE government as tolerant is ‘laughable’. Society is patriarchal to the point of oppression.
Yesterday’s decision by a London court lifted the veil.
For the ‘world’s richest man’, such scrutiny is bad business.