Freightwaves: Investors halt deals with DP World over CEO’s Epstein ties

Quebec’s La Caisse, the country’s second-largest pension fund, which holds a 45% stake in DP World Canada, in a statement said it expects the global logistics company to “take necessary actions” after the Dubai firm’s chief executive, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, was identified in the latest release of Epstein files.

La Caisse told Bloomberg in a statement that it is pausing further investment with DP World.

Development agency British International Investment (BII) of the United Kingdom also said it is suspending investment with DP World.

The company, owned by the government of Dubai, operates in more than 60 ports and through hundreds of business units on six continents, with container handling capacity of around 100 million twenty foot equivalent units (TEUs). Its U.S. logistics network includes facilities in Miami, Fla.; Middletown, Pa.; Perris, Calif. and Olive Branch, MIss., providing forwarding, contract logistics, warehousing, and multimodal transport services.

Sulayem was one of a half-dozen men whose names were redacted from the Epstein files by the Trump administration. They were revealed this week by Republican Congressman Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna.

Sulayem in disclosed correspondence with Epstein from 2007 bragged about his sexual exploits with multiple women. He was also seen in at least one photo with Epstein. 

Massie in a post on X shared an exchange of emails in which a sender identified by the Justice Department as Sulayem sent a “torture” video to Epstein. 

Sulayem was among dozens of powerful individuals who stayed in contact with Epstein for more than a decade after the financier was convicted in 2008 of child sex trafficking.

La Caisse beginning in 2016 planned to invest $3.7 billion with DP World, including the Port of Jebel Ali in Dubai, the largest port in the Middle East.

In September DP World announced a joint venture to develop the Contreceur container terminal at the Port of Montreal. FreightWaves has contacted the Montreal Port Authority for comment.

Epstein had a cozy relationship with the jet-setting Sulayem, which is illustrated in hundreds of email exchanges where they discussed everything from women and business to travel and penthouse apartments. In one exchange Sulayem asks whether an individual is close to President Donald Trump, Epstein replies that “Donald is close to no one”: