DP World replaces Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem amid UAE tycoon's links to Epstein
DP World, the global UAE-owned logistics company, has replaced Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem as its chairman and chief executive following intense scrutiny over his friendship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The company on Friday named Essa Kazim chairman and Yuvraj Narayan chief executive in a statement that did not mention Sulayem. It's unclear whether he will stay on at the company in another role.
Sulayem, 71, had been DP World's chair since 2007 and its chief executive since 2016. The company handles a tenth of the world's container trade.
The tycoon was also on Friday replaced as chairman of Dubai's Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation by Abdulla bin Damithan.
Emails released by the US Department of Justice revealed Sulayem maintained a decades-long professional and personal relationship with Epstein.
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The emails span from 2007 until weeks before Epstein’s death in a prison cell in August 2019. The majority of them were sent after the American financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The two men discussed visits to Epstein’s private island, introduced each other to powerful figures, and shared content about business, politics and religion.
They also candidly – and sometimes degradingly – spoke about sex and women.
Sulayem is one of the most powerful business figures in the United Arab Emirates.
He was born in Dubai to a well-connected family, with his father having served as an adviser to the city’s ruling Al Maktoum family.
This week, firms in the UK and Canada suspended future investments with DP World over Sulayem’s ties with Epstein.
Quebec’s La Caisse pension fund – one of DP World’s largest financial partners, which holds a 45 percent stake in DP World Canada – said it had paused future investments until DP World took “necessary actions”.
British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance agency, also paused future capital over Sulayem’s links to Epstein.
BII jointly owns Berbera port in Somaliland alongside DP World and the Somaliland government, as Middle East Eye reported last month.
DP World is wholly owned by a holding company controlled by the government of Dubai.
According to its website, it is responsible for contributing over 36 percent of Dubai's GDP, and around 12 percent of the GDP of the UAE.
MEE asked DP World and Sulayem for comment on the links with Epstein, but did not receive a response.
Some prominent UAE figures heaped praised on Sulayem following his departure.
Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent Emirati academic seen as a voice representative of the UAE's ruling establishment, passed on "a million thanks" to Sulayem for his contribution to Dubai's ports.
"You have been, still are, and will remain a source of appreciation and respect from all," Abdulla wrote. "The time has come for the knight to hang up his spurs after a journey replete with successes and achievements."
Meanwhile, Dhahi Khalfan, the deputy chief of police and public security in Dubai, said that Sulayem had made "tremendous efforts".
"Every horse stumbles...the important thing is that our leadership realizes the standards of governance and has taken what is necessary," Khalfan wrote on X.
"Dismissals happen everywhere and this is expected by those who know when change should be made."
Decades-long relationship with Epstein
Emails suggest Sulayem made visits to Little Saint James, the private Caribbean island once owned by Epstein.
“I really had a very nice time at your island,” the Emirati wrote in June 2013, in one of scores of memos discussing visits to Little Saint James.
Sulayem's name is also linked to the acquisition of another island by Epstein.
Great St James Cay, a larger island to the north of Epstein’s, was much coveted by the financier. But its owner, Christian Kjaer, did not want to sell it to Epstein, due to his sex offences convictions.
According to the Miami Herald, to circumvent that, Epstein bought the island through a shell company whose beneficial owner was Sulayem.
An aide to Sulayem told the Herald that Epstein asked to use the Emirati’s name in an unspecified business deal, to which he was told no.
There is no suggestion that Sulayem participated in any criminal activity.
Epstein introduced Sulayem to influential figures, including Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister; Steve Bannon, the right-wing strategist; and Peter Mandelson, a former British peer.
The convicted paedophile helped Sulayem lobby Mandelson – the former British ambassador to the US, who was sacked over his connections with Epstein – in relation to a £1.8bn ($2.45bn) port project on the River Thames.
Sulayem sent a brief about the project to Epstein, who forwarded it to Mandelson, then the UK business secretary.
Correspondence showed that Sulayem lobbied the UK government to guarantee loans to fund the project. DP World went ahead with the scheme in 2010, and currently runs the London Gateway port.
Sulayem regularly kept Epstein up to date with information about DP World’s dealings around the world.
In one email, he told the sex offender that he was waiting for approval to acquire a “sensitive” infrastructure asset which would happen following the signing of a bilateral deal between the UAE and Russia.
While some of the emails were professional, many were personal and related to sex and women.
In one email, as reported by Bloomberg, Sulayem told Epstein about his efforts to meet a supermodel.
“After several attemps for several months we managed to meet in NY. there is a missunderstanding she she wanted some BUSINESS! while i only wanted some PUSSYNESS!” he wrote.
Epstein replied: “Praise Allah, there are still people like you.”
A separate email shows Epstein sending Sulayem a link to escort services in Italy, to which the Emirati responds: “Wow.”
The pair often shared lewd and insensitive jokes.
“A friend of mine went to the mosque in saudi,” the Emirati wrote. “He said with all these terrorists Frankly you can't tell wether the guy standing next to you is just scratching his balls or fiddling with the detonator button !!!”
Sulayem was also pictured with Epstein in May 2014 looking at a piece of cloth that resembles the sacred Kiswa from Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
US lawmakers who were allowed access to unredacted Epstein files this week said that a disturbing memo in which Epstein states “I loved the torture video” was sent to Sulayem, according to The Telegraph newspaper in the UK.
Ro Khanna, one of those US lawmakers, wrote on X reacting to Suleyam's departure: "@RepThomasMassie & I called on DOJ to stop protecting this man & underact his name. They relented. Then I took to the House floor to name names. Today, he resigns."
He added: "We will not rest until there is elite accountability for the Epstein class."
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