Two years before hosting a meeting with Elon Musk in Dubai, Emirati logistics CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem asked Jeffrey Epstein to connect him with the Tesla head, newly released emails show. It’s not the only time Musk has come up in the Epstein files.
In 2015, an Emirati businessman emailed Jeffrey Epstein asking the financier to put him in touch with Elon Musk, according to leaked emails reviewed by the Lever.
According to the records, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, CEO of Middle East logistics giant DP World and one of President Donald Trump’s early Middle Eastern business partners, wanted to chat with Musk about using Tesla batteries at a hotel Sulayem was building in Dubai. Musk, among the world’s richest people, would go on to serve in Trump’s second administration.
“Can you put me in touch with Elon [M]usk or ask him to refer me to someone at his company so we can discuss,” Sulayem wrote Epstein on May 29, 2015, years after Epstein had been convicted of soliciting a minor.
Following years of criminal proceedings and news investigations, federal agents arrested Epstein for sex trafficking in July 2019. The following month, Epstein, known for fraternizing with many of the world’s most rich and powerful, was found dead in his federal jail cell.
Partial releases and leaks of federal investigators’ records on the matter have indicated Epstein cultivated ties to politicians of all stripes, including President Donald Trump and members of his inner circle. After repeated pushback on the issue, Trump agreed last month to release the full “Epstein files.”
While the documents are supposed to be released by December 19, portions of Epstein’s communications have continued to emerge. That includes twenty thousand alleged Epstein emails recently obtained and vetted by Distributed Denial of Secrets, a nonprofit that “archives and publishes hacked and leaked documents in the public interest.” According to the investigative news outlet Drop Site, which first reported on the emails, the documents contain the same forensic signatures as other leaked Epstein materials.
In 2005, Sulayem reportedly helped seal a deal between Trump and Emirati officials to build a tulip-shaped hotel on a human-made island in Dubai. It was Trump’s first hotel deal in the Middle East, the Associated Press reported at the time.
It is uncertain if Epstein ever reached out to Musk about Sulayem or put the two in touch; the Lever did not find a response from Epstein to Sulayem’s request on the matter among the twenty thousand emails. However, in 2017, Musk and Sulayem led a discussion in Dubai about using Tesla batteries for renewable energy storage in shipping ports and terminals in Africa, India, and Latin America.
Tesla and Sulayem did not respond to requests for comment ahead of publication.
“Elon Musk to Island”
The details of Sulayem’s email come several months after House Democrats released Epstein’s daily schedules, which included a December 6, 2014, note stating, “Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec. 6 (is this still happening?)”
In response, Musk claimed that he refused the invitation and that he had never visited Epstein’s Little St James Island, where Epstein allegedly brought young women, including some who appeared to be preteen. In 2019, Musk told Vanity Fair that he had visited Epstein’s New York home and that Epstein repeatedly tried to get him to visit his island. Musk said he declined the invitation.
Musk has also been linked to Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and coconspirator who played a “key role” in Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme, according to prosecutors. In 2014, Musk and Maxwell were photographed together during a Vanity Fair Oscar party. Musk later accused Maxwell of “photobombing” him at the party.
“Victoria’s Secret”
According to the leaked emails reviewed by the Lever, Epstein and Sulayem exchanged dozens, if not hundreds, of emails between 2007 and 2018. In often informally written missives, the two shared news articles, investment advice, and made plans to meet. Sulayem often wrote to Epstein asking the sex offender if he could visit his island, emails show.
“Dear Jeffery, Any update on the Christmas at your island I need to plan my travel,” states one email from December 9, 2014.
Palm Beach police began investigating Epstein in 2005, after a fourteen-year-old’s parents told police that he paid her for a massage. Local police referred the case to federal prosecutors in 2006, and two years later, as part of a federal nonprosecution agreement, Epstein pleaded guilty to solicitation of a prostitute and solicitation of a prostitution with a minor under the age of eighteen.
The plea deal and Epstein’s subsequent eighteen-month sentence, which allowed him to leave his minimum security prison for twelve hours a day for work purposes, were widely critiqued. Epstein served less than 13 months of the sentence and was released in July 2009.
Drop Site recently reported that Distributed Denial of Secrets’ tranche of emails suggested Epstein “attempting to cultivate a relationship” between Sulayem and former Victoria’s Secret magnate Les Wexner.
One March 28, 2008, email Epstein sent to Sulayem states: “call me over the weekend regarding Victoria[’]s secret.”
“Shake Hand With Trump”
According to emails released by the House Oversight Committee in November, Sulayem emailed Epstein on January 6, 2017, asking Epstein if he should attend the upcoming presidential inauguration of then president-elect Donald Trump.
Sulayem stated that he was invited to the event by Tom Barrack, then-senior adviser to the Trump campaign.
“Do you think it will be possible to shake hand with trump,” Sulayem asked.
Epstein wrote back that Sulayem should call him and later wrote: “very many people going. it will be very crowded. but if you can meet some before or after in either wash or ny, it might be worth it.. but unlikely”.
This article was first published by the Lever, an award-winning independent investigative newsroom.
This post was originally published on Jacobin.