Epstein docs reveal hotel magnate Tom Pritzker, kin of Democratic Illinois gov

Billionaire hotel magnate Tom Pritzker was among the high profile names revealed in the public release of unredacted court documents from a lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell for her role in facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking ring.

Pritzker, 73, who has local and national Democrat political ties through family members to the Obama administration, was named in a May 2016 deposition of Virginia Giuffre, who accused Maxwell of abusing her as part of the Epstein sex trafficking ring. In filings reviewed by FOX Business, Giuffre was asked by an attorney during the deposition, "All right, if I were to ask you the question how many times you had sex with Tom Pritzker, do you know what that question means?"

"I believe so," Giuffre responded, which prompted the attorney to inquire, "All right, what is the answer to that question?"

"I believe I was with Tom once," Giuffre said.

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The allegation by Giuffre against Pritzker was first revealed in 2019 with the unsealing of another set of court documents. The Miami Herald reported at the time that Giuffre alleged she was sent overseas to "have sex with the owner of a large hotel chain." At the time, Pritzker was mentioned by name in a footnote, though the document didn't clarify that he was the hotel magnate mentioned.

In response to an inquiry from FOX Business, a spokesperson for Pritzker said, "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."

Tom Pritzker is a member of the prominent Pritzker clan, which Forbes ranked as America’s ninth-richest family in 2020 with an estimated net worth of $32.5 billion, and has been a fixture in the outlet’s top 10 since the early 1980s. 

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The family amassed a considerable amount of its wealth through the growth of the Hyatt Hotels brand, which Tom Pritzker's father and uncle purchased in 1957, although the Pritzkers have operated several other companies as well.

Tom Pritzker continues to serve as the chairman of Hyatt Hotels and is also the chairman of The Pritzker Organization, which serves as an investment company for the family’s business ventures.

The family’s influence and roots in the Chicago area have led to political prominence as well. Tom Pritzker is the cousin of Illinois’ Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Harvard Corporation Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker, who served as commerce secretary during the final three and a half years of the Obama administration. 

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In her role at the helm of the Harvard Corporation, Penny Pritzker leads Harvard’s most powerful oversight board – a role that has brought scrutiny amid the controversy over campus antisemitism and the plagiarism allegations against Claudine Gay, who resigned as Harvard’s president earlier this week. 

Penny Pritzker has rebuffed calls for her resignation over the Harvard Corporation’s handling of the controversies.