FBI Allegedly Helped UAE Oligarch Kidnap His Daughter After She Logged Into Instagram, Yahoo
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The FBI assisted United Arab Emirates Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with a 2018 plot to kidnap his own daughter, according to a new report.
The incident occurred when Princess Latifa — known by her full name as Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum — attempted to escape her billionaire father’s dominion, traveling 20 miles by Jet Ski and dinghy to an American vessel off the coast of Oman with plans to seek asylum in the United States. But eight days later, the vessel was raided by a group of commandos who apprehended the princess, and absconded with her back to the UAE.
The FBI played an essential role in the raid by providing the location data required to find the princess to her abductors, according to a Wednesday report by USA Today. The princess posted — and deleted — several times on Instagram, in addition to using a Yahoo email account, according to the publication, despite a communications blackout by the ship’s captain. Location data from those events was sent to Rhode Island-based KVH, which provided the ship’s internet service,
Sources told USA Today the UAE informed the FBI the princess had been kidnapped. It wasn’t clear whether the bureau followed proper protocols — which would have required a subpoena — to obtain the location data before handing it over. “The FBI truly believed this was a kidnapping case and the U.S. was saving the day,” one of the sources said.
Latifa recorded a video message 15 days before she left on the ship. “Pretty soon I’m going to be leaving somehow, and I am not so sure of the outcome, but I’m 99 percent positive it will work,” she said. “If it doesn’t, then this video can help me, because all my father cares about is his reputation. He will kill people to protect his own reputation. He only cares about himself and his ego. So this video could save my life. And if you are watching this video, it’s not such a good thing. Either I’m dead, or I’m in a very, very, very bad situation.”
In a video smuggled out in February of this year, Latifa reiterated the message, and said she had been imprisoned in a villa in Dubai. “Every day I am worried my safety and my life,” she said in that video. “I don’t really know if I’m going to survive this situation. The police threatened me that I’ll be in prison my whole life and I’ll never see the sun again.”
London-based law firm Taylor Wessing issued a statement attributed to Latifa in June that contradicted the earlier messages. “I can travel where I want,” the message said. “I hope now that I can live my life in peace.”
