An Emirati shipping magnate whose company operates the port of Limassol has been thrust back into the spotlight on Tuesday, after a senior US lawmaker publicly linked him to a controversial email exchange with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein contained in newly released justice department files.
Kentucky Republican congressman Thomas Massie identified Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, chairman and chief executive of DP World, as the recipient of a 2009 email in which Epstein wrote that he “loved the torture video.”
The email, released as part of millions of documents under the Epstein files transparency act, had previously redacted the recipient’s name.
Deputy US attorney-general Todd Blanche later confirmed that an unredacted reference within the same file identified “Sultan Bin Sulayem”, adding that redactions applied only to personally identifiable information such as email addresses.
“You know it’s an email address that was redacted,” Blanche told Massie publicly.
“The Sultan’s name is available unredacted in the files.”
The nature of the alleged “torture video” remains unknown and no criminal allegation has been made against bin Sulayem.
US officials have stressed that appearance in the Epstein files “is not indicative of criminal wrongdoing”.
Bin Sulayem, one of the most powerful figures in global logistics, has business ties to Cyprus through Dubai Ports World, which operates Limassol port under a concession agreement with the Cypriot government.
In a separate tranche of emails released last week, bin Sulayem was shown to have written to Epstein in 2015 describing a personal relationship with a young Cypriot woman, recommending her to the disgraced financier in explicit terms.
The email identified her as having a Cypriot mother and Russian father and contained sexual descriptions, though no suggestion was made that she was underage.
That exchange placed bin Sulayem among a wider network of prominent figures who maintained personal contact with Epstein years after his 2008 conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution.
Epstein was found dead in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
US lawmakers reviewing the unredacted files said the latest disclosures raised broader concerns about transparency.
Massie, who co-authored the legislation forcing the release of the documents, said, “there are very powerful people who raped these underage girls. It wasn’t just Epstein and Maxwell.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that inclusion in the files alone did not establish guilt.
The justice department has reiterated that further documents remain under review, amid criticism from members of Congress that millions of files are still withheld or heavily redacted.
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