Emirati Billionaire Redacted in Files Who Sent Epstein A ‘Torture Video’ Resigns As CEO of DP World
Emirati billionaire Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem has resigned as CEO of Dubai-based global ports and logistics company, DP World, after being exposed as having been involved in a disturbing email exchange with late sex trafficker, Jeffrey Epstein.
DP World confirmed in a statement that bin Sulayem’s resignation is effective immediately. The move follows a deluge of revelations from the Epstein files, a vast trove of documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice under the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress.
According to a BBC News Arabic analysis, these files include years’ worth of correspondence between bin Sulayem and Epstein that continued even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction on charges related to soliciting a minor for prostitution. In one widely reported email from April 2009, Epstein wrote to bin Sulayem, “where are you? are you ok I loved the torture video,” prompting lawmakers and the public to demand answers.
Institutional investors, including British International Investment and Canada‘s La Caisse pension fund, had publicly suspended new investment activities with DP World earlier in the week, citing concerns over the nature of bin Sulayem’s emails and their potential impact on the company’s reputation and governance.
The Epstein files stem from millions of pages of documents related to the decades-long investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal network. Epstein died in 2019 while in federal custody awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. On the floor of the United States House of Representatives, lawmakers publicly identified bin Sulayem as one of the previously redacted names in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law passed in late 2025 requiring the U.S. Department of Justice to make millions of pages of material related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein publicly accessible, many documents were released in January and early February 2026. But large portions of the material were heavily redacted, drawing criticism from lawmakers who argued that the redactions obscured potentially important context.
On February 10, 2026, Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California and a chief sponsor of the transparency law, took to the House floor to read the names of six wealthy individuals whose names had been blacked out in the publicly released files. Among those he identified was Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, alongside other figures such as American billionaire Leslie Wexner and several lesser-known international businessmen.
Khanna and his Republican colleague, Representative Thomas Massie, had been granted access to unredacted files at a Department of Justice viewing room, where they spent hours reviewing material that had been withheld from the public versions. Khanna criticized the department for what he described as unnecessary concealment of names, saying that if such high-profile identities were hidden without clear justification, “imagine how many men they are covering up for” across the roughly 3.5 million pages released so far.
In addition to the 2009 “torture video” email, other correspondence reportedly details personal and sexually explicit exchanges and discussions that extend beyond professional or benign acquaintance. Despite the pressure, neither bin Sulayem nor DP World has been accused of criminal conduct related to Epstein’s crimes.
