A billionaire heir to the Hyatt Hotels dynasty resigned from his position as the company’s executive chairman due to his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Thomas Pritzker, a cousin of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and former Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, announced in a letter to the Hyatt board on Monday that he was retiring, effective immediately, and that he would not seek reelection to the company’s board.
“Good stewardship also means protecting Hyatt, particularly in the context of my association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell which I deeply regret,” Pritzker, 75, said in the letter.
“I exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with them, and there is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner,” he added. “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.”
Recently released files from the Department of Justice revealed that Pritzker had been in close contact with the child sex criminal Epstein for years after his 2008 conviction.
Emails from the DOJ’s tranche of files showed the two frequently met at the disgraced financier’s Manhattan home for appointments and dinners.
One email exchange from 2018 showed Epstein asking Pritzker to help his girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, plan a trip to Southeast Asia, where she said she was going to “find a new girlfriend for Jeffrey.”
“May the Force be with you,” Pritzker replied to Shuliak.
Hyatt’s board appointed the company’s president and CEO, Mark Hoplamazian, to succeed Pritzker as chairman.
“Tom’s leadership has been instrumental in shaping Hyatt’s strategy and long-term growth, and we thank him for his service and dedication to Hyatt,” the chair of the board’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee, Richard Tuttle, said in a press release.
Pritzker, who was Hyatt’s chairman for over 20 years, said in another statement that “It has been an honor and one of the great experiences of my life to have contributed to Hyatt’s growth.”
“Hyatt is well positioned for the future, and I have great confidence in Mark, our leadership team, and the Board as they continue to build on our strong foundation,” he concluded.
The Daily Beast reached out to The Pritzker Organization and Hyatt Hotels for comment.
Pritzker is not the only high-profile name to resign in disgrace over their connection to Epstein.
Kathy Ruemmler, Goldman Sachs’s top attorney and the former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, announced on Thursday that she would resign from her position on June 30, after her continued correspondence with Epstein after his conviction was revealed in the Epstein files.
Emirati executive Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the CEO of multi-billion dollar logistics company DP World, also stepped down from his position on Friday after his explicit emails with Epstein were uncovered, including one where Epstein told bin Sulayem, “I loved the torture video.”
The recipient of the email was redacted in the DOJ’s file, but Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna identified bin Sulayem publicly as the recipient on February 9.
