Hyatt Executive Chairman Tom Pritzker Among Names Tied To Epstein, Giuffre
Hyatt Hotels Executive Chairman Thomas Pritzker was named in unsealed court documents from a lawsuit by a sexual trafficking victim of the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Pritzker allegedly had sex with Virginia Giuffre, one of the women who has accused Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking them to a host of elite and powerful political and business leaders.
Giuffre told her lawyer in a 2016 deposition that she had sex with Pritzker one time, The Messenger reported. While Giuffre never explicitly stated Epstein or Maxwell instructed her to have sex with Pritzker, Giuffre later in the deposition mentions having sexual relations at a “cabana townhouse thing” in France with the “owner of a large hotel chain,” an arrangement allegedly set up by Maxwell, The Messenger reported.
A Pritzker spokesperson denied the claims made by Giuffre to The Messenger on Tuesday.
“This is the same false and isolated allegation that was published and vehemently denied more than four years ago. Mr. Pritzker continues to vehemently deny it,” according to the statement emailed to The Messenger.
Pritzker has not been charged in connection to Epstein’s case, in which the late influential investment manager was convicted of trafficking underage girls to his private island for sex with himself and a host of powerful men. Maxwell has been convicted of acting as a middleman in recruiting young women for Epstein, charges she is appealing, according to The Independent.
Pritzker, whose net worth is estimated at $6B, is among the handful of prominent names to come up in the unsealed court documents related to Giuffre’s 2015 defamation lawsuit against Maxwell that was settled in 2017, including former U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, Britain’s Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin. In December, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered that the names of other Epstein associates mentioned in the initial lawsuit could be released beginning Jan. 1.
Pritzker's name surfaced in 2022 as someone with marginal connections to Epstein and Maxwell, Business Insider reported at the time, with his name coming up in the context of a witness saying they didn’t recognize him.
Pritzker is the cousin of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, and is the executive chairman of the Pritzker Organization, which handles finances and investments for the family’s business interests, according to The Messenger.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking and conspiracy, charges her attorneys have appealed. Epstein faced similar charges, with the prospect of spending 45 years in prison if he was found guilty, but died in prison in 2019 from an apparent suicide.
Calls for comment from Hyatt and The Pritzker Organization were not returned.
