A video reviewed in recent reporting shows Texas Attorney General and U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton ringing in 2025 from a Dubai high-rise balcony alongside his girlfriend, Tracy Duhon, and two men who had been indicted months earlier in a $15 million hospital embezzlement case. The footage reportedly captures Paxton and Duhon watching fireworks explode over the Burj Khalifa as the new year began, with Anosh Ahmed and Sameer Suhail standing nearby.
The gathering is detailed in a report from Forbes, which describes Paxton as having “partied in Dubai with two American fugitives.” MS NOW also covered the gathering. The San Antonio Express-News reports that a video shows fireworks exploding over the Burj Khalifa skyscraper as Paxton and Duhon watched from a luxury high-rise balcony. The Express-News reports that Paxton and Angela Paxton, his wife at the time, were already separated when the Dubai trip took place, according to divorce filings; Angela Paxton filed for divorce in 2025, accusing him of adultery.
Who Are Ahmed and Suhail?
Ahmed and Suhail were indicted in Illinois in 2024 on federal charges accusing them of embezzling $15 million from a Chicago hospital, where Ahmed served as chief financial officer, per Forbes. The Justice Department's charging announcement said the former hospital CFO schemed with a colleague and the owner of a medical supply company to embezzle more than $15 million in hospital funds, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A superseding indictment filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois identifies alleged violations including federal theft, wire fraud and money laundering statutes.
Ahmed and Suhail eventually returned to the United States to face the charges, the Express-News reports. Before that, the pair reportedly lived expensive lifestyles in Dubai while fugitives from the U.S. case, as detailed by the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported that Suhail operated a plastic-surgery clinic there. Ahmed was ultimately arrested in Serbia on November 30, 2025, after an international alert seeking his arrest was issued, according to WTTW.
A Second Fraud Case and a Not-Guilty Plea
Ahmed is also a defendant in a separate case alleging he ran a scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds tied to fake COVID-19 tests. The Chicago Tribune reported that nearly $300 million was sought in reimbursement claims. Forbes has separately described the alleged scheme as a $195 million Covid-19 fraud case; the reporting preserves both figures without resolving the discrepancy.
Ahmed pleaded not guilty to a 15-count federal fraud and money laundering indictment, the Tribune reported on August 31. Forbes notes that Ahmed has pleaded not guilty in both cases, and that he and Suhail are now back in the U.S., with Ahmed in custody.
The Money Trail to Paxton's Campaign
Campaign finance records cited by Forbes show Ahmed donated $190,000 to Paxton, including a $25,000 contribution made just days after Ahmed's 2024 indictment. Paxton announced his U.S. Senate bid after the Dubai video was made, and he is now the Republican candidate running against Democratic challenger James Talarico. Houston Public Media reported in May that Paxton won the Republican primary runoff.
Campaign Response and a Rocky Stretch
A Paxton spokesperson did not address the specifics of the Dubai gathering but said Paxton had been “politically persecuted,” according to MS NOW. The Express-News reported that Paxton's campaign did not immediately respond to Hearst Newspapers' request for comment. Nick Maddux, in a statement to the Wall Street Journal, said Paxton has been politically persecuted for years and that voters have repeatedly returned him to office because he has fought for Texas.
The Dubai report lands amid what the Express-News describes as a series of unflattering reports about Paxton in recent weeks, including leaked audio in which he appeared to claim he was not in control of his campaign and that Donald Trump's Dallas midterm convention had damaged his run. In December, Paxton sued two North Texas physicians over gender-affirming care and Texas Medicaid billing, saying fraudulent schemes to steal Texas taxpayers' money would be stopped and repaid, and that medical professionals using their positions to illegally transition children would face the full force of the law. He spoke at a political rally at Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio on October 7.
