Finally, at long last, the British press is exerting some pressure on Prince William! It seems that Prince Andrew is not the only royal tainted by his close association with Jeffrey Epstein. While there’s been no evidence (so far) that William met Epstein or took money from Epstein directly, we now know that one of William’s patronages took donations from Epstein, and we also know that one of Epstein’s close associates is a founding partner of Earthshot. That close associate is Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, who was the CEO of DP World. ABS stepped down as CEO last Friday, hoping to head off the larger conversations about his years-long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Even though ABS is now out at DP World, the UK Charity Commission still might investigate Earthshot. And it’s looking like William is going to have to do more than just stay irritated and silent. The Times now reports that Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem was invited to Buckingham Palace by Prince William. And Peter Mandelson is involved too.
A Dubai billionaire who apparently shared a “torture video” with Jeffrey Epstein was invited to Buckingham Palace with Prince William after successfully lobbying Lord Mandelson over a £1.8 billion deal. Until Friday, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem was the chairman and chief executive of the Dubai port giant DP World, the company behind P&O Ferries and the London Gateway freeport in Thurrock, Essex. His London project secured public funding from the UK government weeks after he emailed Mandelson, then business secretary, in November 2009.
Epstein helped to broker a meeting between Mandelson and Bin Sulayem shortly after he was released from prison and while still under house arrest for soliciting a minor, emails released by the US Department of Justice show.
Bin Sulayem, 70, who has an estimated wealth of $7 billion, corresponded with the paedophile for more than a decade after his 2008 conviction, emails in the Epstein files suggest. The two apparently made several explicit references to sexual encounters and sent each other images of naked women. In December 2016 Bin Sulayem described Epstein as a “business associate and very dear friend”. He left his post at DP World last week after his ties with Epstein became public.
On March 14, 2016, Bin Sulayem invited William and the former foreign secretary Lord Hague of Richmond to the London Gateway project. The next day, Bin Sulayem joined William at Buckingham Palace for an event organised by one of the then Duke of Cambridge’s charities, the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce. Bin Sulayem was one of 40 “global transport leaders” who signed a declaration to shut down illegal wildlife trafficking routes.
Later that evening, the emails suggest, the Emirati businessman boasted to Epstein about the visit. “Fun,” Epstein replied. Bin Sulayem invited Epstein to dinner the following week. “I have my cook with me, we will cook you dinner on the 23rd.”
Meanwhile, the links between William and Bin Sulayem persisted. In 2020, when William founded his charity, the Earthshot Prize, DP World was selected as a founding partner. Two years later, in 2022, William travelled to Dubai for the inaugural Earthshot Prize innovation showcase. Environment-conscious finalists “from around the world presented incredible ideas that could be scaled to help repair our planet”, according to a LinkedIn post in which Bin Sulayem boasted to his 385,000 followers of his connection to the future king.
The event was hosted at DP World’s Dubai Flow Pavilion, where the prince was pictured sitting next to Bin Sulayem. William attended as part of a two-day taxpayer-funded trip to the Abu Dhabi capital in which he also visited the Jebel Ali Free Zone, a free trade port operated by DP World. Charity accounts show that DP World provided £1 million in donations to the prince’s charity.
Republic, the antimonarchist pressure group, reported the donations to the Charity Commission on the grounds that “it is not credible to believe the Foreign Office, security services or other advisers were not aware of Sulayem’s character”.
A source close to the Prince of Wales said he meets hundreds of business leaders and chief executives as part of his official duties but has no personal relationship with bin Sulayem beyond the brief, formal interactions that take place at public events. William would not have known about the alleged relationship between bin Sulayem and Epstein because it was only exposed by emails released this year. It is understood that philanthropic partnerships with the Prince’s Earthshot Prize are with DP World, not its chief executive.
There are now extensive records of ABS’s communications with Epstein for more than a decade. They were still talking and messaging up until Epstein’s 2019 arrest!! While this is news to me and news to many people out here in the cheap seats, do you think this was news to the British government and British intelligence? And what is the vetting process like in these royal circles? Because it seems like it’s just vibes-based vetting when it comes to Arab billionaires. “Oh, you’re worth billions? No background check necessary, Prince William will meet with you shortly.”
Photos courtesy of Instar and Cover Images.
