Vanity Fair dug into an old story where a Saudi princess by the name of Maha bint Mohammed bin Ahmad al-Sudair tried to skip out on a $7 million hotel bill at one of the best hotels in Paris back in 2012. That's a fucking ballsy move no matter who you are. Also, please consider that she tried to pull this off with a crew of more than 60 people by her side, who occupied 41 rooms in the hotel for more than five months. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE.
Three years prior to that escapade, she essentially skipped out on a $20 million shopping spree that saw her scooping up absurdly expensive pieces from some of the most exclusive boutiques in Paris as well. How does one skip out on a shopping spree when you have to, you know, actually pay for things before you leave? Well, she had an assistant hand the employees a piece of paper with the words "Payment to follow" and just fucking walked out like an actual, well, goddamn princess. I really gotta try that shit at some point. Apparently, she had done this before and made good on her word, but by 2009 she had racked up such hefty tabs that shop owners were camping out at her hotel, hoping to be paid. Since her cousin owned the hotel, she was able to escape unscathed though the debt was reportedly eventually settled on her behalf.
As you can imagine, there are quite a bit of moving parts to this story—a lot of royal politics that involved the death of her ex-husband (who was also her cousin) and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (her brother-in-law) being fed up with her shit, confining her to a posh palace which lead to her Parisian escape. Meanwhile, recent investigation into the debts found that the companies stiffed were taken care of off the books to avoid any prominent public scandal. It's all a convoluted mess of politics, fashion and a fuck ton of cash aka a Four Pins original screenplay.
