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The sultan’s long reign has not been without controversy, with the business dealings of his brother, Prince Jefri, being especially problematic. The blurred lines between the personal wealth of the family member of an absolute ruler and state funds became increasingly public when the scale of losses of the prince’s business, Amedeo, became known. This resulted in a sale of Jefri’s assets, including 500 properties and nine aircraft. Another casualty of the affair was the family car collection. Some 7,000 luxury vehicles had been acquired by Jefri, including 500 Rolls-Royce, one of which was gold plated and valued at £12m, and ten of the 106 McLaren F1 cars produced, each with a value of over £5m. Eventually, thousands of the cars were abandoned and ruined by the climate, with others sold to pay Jefri’s debts.
The sultan has remained close to Sandhurst with the Brunei Sports Hall – a gift to mark his time at the Academy. He also acted as the Sovereign’s Representative at the commissioning parade in 2011. Indeed, his close ties with Britain were further cemented when he took the salute at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, in 2001 and was made an honorary general by the Queen. Sultan Bolkiah takes an active interest in the people defending his country and, in 2022, to mark the changeover from the 1st Gurkha Rifles to the 2nd Battalion, he personally visited the departing soldiers and their families. On 8th September 2022, upon the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the sultan became the longest-reigning living monarch in the world.
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