DP World boss leaves ports and P&O owner amid questions over Epstein l

The Emirati businessman credited with turning DP World into a global logistics powerhouse has left the company amid questions over his links to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem was the chairman and CEO of the Dubai based group and its earlier entities for more than four decades.

Its interests include 80 ports, including the London Gateway, equating to roughly 10% of the market.

It is also the owner of P&O Ferries – the UK operator that infamously sacked 800 seafarers in favour of cheaper agency staff in 2022.

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THE BIGGEST CORPORATE SCALP OF EPSTEIN SCANDAL SO FAR

Paul Kelso

Business and economics correspondent

@pkelso

The publication of a string of lewd emails exchanged with Epstein, continuing long after the paedophile financier had been convicted, made Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem’s position untenable even for a company with a high tolerance for external pressure.

As the owner of P&O Ferries, DP World did not budge amid public outcry over the summary dismissal of more than 800 seafarers in March 2022, insisting it was a sound business decision.

And in late 2024 bin Sulayem was involved in a public row with Sir Keir Starmer after he threatened to withdraw a planned £1bn expansion of DP World’s London Gateway port after criticism from the then transport minister Louise Haigh.

That deal was patched up in-person, with bin Sulayem attending a government investment summit to shake hands. As recently as March last year he travelled to the UK to meet junior minister Poppy Gustafsson at London Gateway.

Interviewed by Sky News on that visit, he said DP World had been “discredited” by Ms Haigh’s comments. In the last fortnight he has found himself in that…