UAE port operator DP World's Group Chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, has resigned from the company, effective immediately, DP World said on Friday, February 13.
The board of DP World has appointed Essa Kazim as the new Chairman while Yuvraj Narayan will take over as the new Group CEO.
No reason has been given in the statement for Mr Sulayem's resignation [the entry page for Mr Sulayem's profile on the DP World website has also been apparently removed, leading only to an error page, ed].
The BBC reported that DP World's former Chair and CEO left his dual post after documents published by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed his apparent close association with American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. However, the same documents did not explicitly state that Mr Sulayem had committed any illegal behaviour.
US Congressmen Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie, co-sponsors of the legislation that compelled the release of the documents by the DOJ, have said that Mr Sulayem was one of "six powerful men" associated with Epstein, who died of an apparent suicide while imprisoned and awaiting trial in 2019.