About
Noor al-Hussein is the U.S.-born queen of Jordan, widow of the late King Hussein and stepmother of the current monarch, Abdullah.In the data
Queen Noor – sometimes referred to as “Mrs. Jordan” or “Mrs. Brown” in Appleby’s database – is the beneficiary of two trusts registered in Jersey, according to a document dated October 2015. Leaked files show that one, the Valentine 1997 Trust, was valued at more than $40 million in 2015, and its income is to be paid to the queen during her lifetime. The trust also owns property in southern England adjacent to Buckhurst Park, where Queen Noor resides and where she is responsible for keeping the premises “clean and tidy” and for “interior decoration.”
To reduce inheritance taxes on the queen’s estate upon her death, the trustees in 2013 considered borrowing money and using Buckhurst Park as a security. This arrangement would lower the property’s market value and decrease inheritance taxes, according to internal notes. It is not clear whether the idea was implemented.
According to Appleby documents, the other trust, the Brown Discretionary Settlement, is the beneficial owner of a Jersey-incorporated investment holding company with assets worth about $18.7 millIon in 2015.
Response
A spokesman for Queen Noor told ICIJ that “all the bequests made to her and to her children by [the late King Hussein] have always been administered according to the highest ethical, legal and regulatory standards.”
He did not respond to detailed questions about the queen’s offshore assets.
