Tahnoon Zayed

United Arab Emirates - National Security Adviser

About

Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan is a prominent member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family and a renowned billionaire businessman. He is the son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’ founding father, and a brother of Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince and the country's de facto ruler. Tahnoon chairs sovereign wealth funds and investment holding companies — including the state holding company ADQ, worth an estimated $110 billion — that control crucial sectors of the economy.

He has served as the national security adviser since 2016. A sportsman especially skilled at martial arts, he’s been a rising figure in Middle East politics and intelligence operations in recent years. Known as the “spy sheikh”, he is the key person behind UAE-orchestrated cyberwarfare against dissidents and people and institutions in other countries, including the United Kingdom. In foreign policy, Tahnoon also deals with high-profile regional affairs, like the tensions over Iran and Yemen's civil war, as well as intelligence cooperation with top global and regional powers, including the U.S., Russia and Israel.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he and one of his conglomerates were involved in a botched deal to resell Russia's vaccine to other countries at double its original market price. He is reported to own the superyacht Maryah, valued at $250 million.

Tahnoon was reportedly one of several UAE officials referenced, but unnamed, in a 2021 U.S. indictment charging American billionaire Thomas Barrack, former chairman of Donald Trump’s presidential inaugural committee, with unlawfully acting as an agent for the UAE’s foreign policy interests. None of the UAE officials have been charged; Barrack has pleaded not guilty.

Political Career

Member of Abu Dhabi’s Supreme Council for Financial and Economic Affairs (2020 - current)

National Security Adviser (2016-current)

Deputy National Security Adviser (2013 - 2016)

In The Pandora Papers

Tahnoon was the beneficial owner of Victorian International Ltd., a company registered in the British Virgin Islands in 2000 and struck off in 2016. The company was used to hold a couple of recreational vessels, including a yacht. In the Pandora Papers, his representatives linked the activity of Victorian International to Al Seer Marine, a boat-building firm based in Abu Dhabi and a subsidiary of IHC, a holding group chaired by Tahnoon.

The Panama Papers show that his wife, Khawla Ahmed Khalifa Alsuwaidi, is also a user of shell companies. From 2001 to 2009, leaked files show, she set up four companies in the BVI with the purpose of owning real estate in the United Kingdom, a previously unpublicized finding. A poet and master of ancient Andalusian–Arab calligraphy, she is the beneficial owner of the companies, which in turn own four apartments in London, according to property records and leaked files. Two apartments, including a penthouse, are located on Avenue Road in St. John’s Wood, an affluent part of London. The files show that until at least mid-2017, Sheikha Khawla was a client of the law firm Mossack Fonseca, which shut down in 2018 in the aftermath of the Panama Papers investigation. Sheikh Tahnoon and Sheikha Khawla did not respond to ICIJ's repeated requests for comment sent to the UAE Embassy in the U.S. and the UAE foreign ministry.

Secrecy Jurisdictions

British Virgin Islands

Panama

Secrecy Broker

At the heart of the Pandora Papers are 14 offshore firms that help clients establish companies in secrecy jurisdictions. This profile draws on leaked data from these providers:

Triden Trust

Discover this Power Player’s offshore connections.