The executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels has announced his immediate resignation following the public disclosure of his connections to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein through recently released federal documents.
Thomas Pritzker, who led the hotel chain for over two decades, issued a statement expressing profound remorse for his relationship with Epstein and his longtime accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with them, and there is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner,” Pritzker stated. “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.”
The U.S. Department of Justice recently made public a collection of documents tied to Epstein that included correspondence between the hotel executive and the disgraced financier.
Epstein took his own life in jail in 2019 while facing federal charges for sex trafficking.
The 75-year-old Pritzker’s departure takes effect right away, and he has also decided not to seek re-election to Hyatt’s board of directors during the company’s upcoming annual shareholder meeting.
This development follows similar fallout in Dubai, where logistics firm DP World recently appointed new leadership after their previous chairman was also mentioned in the Epstein documents.
Dubai’s government media office announced that Essa Kazim would take over as chairman and Yuvraj Narayan as group CEO, replacing Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, though officials did not explicitly reference the Epstein connection in their announcement.
