DP World chief Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem quits after Epstein emails surface

# DP World chief Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem quits after Epstein emails surface

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem has left DP World with immediate effect after newly released files showed he appears to have exchanged hundreds of emails with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over more than a decade.

The supplied evidence, from 2026-02-13, says DP World announced the resignation of its chairman and chief executive on Friday and named Essa Kazim as chairman and Yuvraj Narayan as chief executive. It also says bin Sulayem’s photograph appeared to have been removed from the company website, underlining how quickly the firm moved to distance itself from the disclosure.

The case is not about a criminal charge against bin Sulayem. The BBC report explicitly says being mentioned in the files is not proof of wrongdoing. But the emails have clearly generated reputational pressure, and that pressure was already affecting the company’s partners before the resignation became public.

According to the excerpt, the UK development finance agency and Canada’s second-largest pension fund had suspended new investment into DP World earlier in the week. The Prince of Wales’ Earthshot project, which received funding from the firm, was also reported to the UK Charity Commission after bin Sulayem appeared in the files. Those responses show the commercial and charitable fallout spreading beyond the company itself.

The documents, as summarized by the BBC, suggest a close and wide-ranging relationship between bin Sulayem and Epstein. They indicate Epstein introduced him to figures in politics and business, and that the pair exchanged travel plans, business ideas and personal messages. The report says the correspondence appears to have continued until at least 2017.

The excerpt also says Epstein described bin Sulayem as one of his most trusted friends in a June 2013 email. The details matter because they show not just casual acquaintance but sustained contact across many years, including after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting and procuring a person under 18 for prostitution.

A related part of the BBC’s reporting says some emails touched on the London Gateway port deal, and that Epstein appears to have helped link bin Sulayem with political figures including Lord Mandelson. The report stresses that there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Mandelson in relation to the matter.

For DP World, the immediate issue is governance and trust. The company is a major logistics operator across six continents, and the revelation placed pressure on its leadership from both business partners and public institutions. Bin Sulayem’s resignation closes one chapter quickly, but the fallout from the files is likely to continue.