Hyatt Hotels executive chairman Tom Pritzker announced his retirement on Monday, citing his connection with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Pritzker, Gov. JB Pritzker‘s (D-IL) cousin, announced his immediate retirement in a statement simultaneously announcing he would not seek another three-year term on his publicly listed company’s board.
In the statement, Pritzker, 75, underscored how he “deeply” regretted his relationships with both Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, adding he “exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with them.”
“There is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner,” he wrote. “I condemn the actions and the harm caused by Epstein and Maxwell and I feel deep sorrow for the pain they inflicted on their victims.”
Documents capture Pritzker’s long relationship with Epstein, including emails exchanged as recently as early 2019, just months before Epstein killed himself in prison.
Allegations of sexual misconduct against Pritzker by the late Virginia Giuffre, who was one of Epstein’s more prominent survivors, were first made public in 2019, with Giuffre claiming in court depositions in 2016 that she had been trafficked by Maxwell to have sex with an “owner of a large hotel chain” in France.
“I believe I was with Tom once,” Giuffre said at the time.
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Pritzker, who has been executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels since 2004, has “vehemently” denied any wrongdoing.
Pritzker is estimated to be worth about $6.2 billion, the second-richest member of his hotelier family. His wealth was amassed, in part, through his multiple roles at Hyatt Hotels and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
