UAE paid $6m to bury damaging report on US ambassador Otaiba Submitted by MEE staff on Tue, 05/19/2026 - 12:57 Terakeet, a firm linked to the Epstein Files, managed reputation of Yousef al-Otaiba, NYT reports United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the US Yousef al-Otaiba at the Javits Centre in New York City, 3 March 2025 (Bryan Bedder/Getty Images via AFP) Off The United Arab Emirates paid a US reputation management firm more than $6m to bury a damaging report about its ambassador in Washington, the New York Times reported on Monday.  Yousef al-Otaiba, who has been the UAE’s ambassador to the US since 2008 and who is known as one of the best-connected diplomats in Washington, was concerned about a 2017 article that reported he had ties to sex workers and traffickers.    From July 2019, according to Foreign Agents Registration Act records, the UAE has employed Terakeet, a firm based in Syracuse, New York, to optimise Google searches to promote tourism in the Emirates and to manage Otaiba’s reputation. The article in The Intercept about the “sordid double life of Washington’s most powerful ambassador”, was one of the first things that came up when users searched for Otaiba.  According to four former Terakeet employees who spoke to the NYT, an account manager from the firm relocated to Washington for more than a year to work in person with the Emirati ambassador so as not to leave a digital trail relating to the work. Looking to shunt The Intercept’s article down the search results, the Terakeet team established a web page for Otaiba and used a sock puppet account to positively edit his Wikipedia page.  Netanyahu's boast of secret visit to UAE sparks awkward denial from Abu Dhabi Read More » Several profiles of the ambassador that emphasised his leadership qualities were written and supplied to institutions he had affiliations with, including Harvard’s Kennedy School, the Milken Institute and the Special Olympics, the New York Times reported.