Pritzker steps down as Hyatt govt chairman, efficient instantly, because of his relationship with the late intercourse offender.
Printed On 17 Feb 2026
Billionaire Thomas J Pritzker has introduced that he’s retiring as govt chairman of Hyatt Inns Company over his lengthy affiliation with intercourse offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which got here to gentle in lately launched US Justice Division information.
Pritzker, 75, who has served within the function of Hyatt Inns’ govt chairman since 2004, additionally mentioned on Monday that he won’t search re-election to the corporate’s board at its 2026 annual stockholder assembly.
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In a letter to the Hyatt board and a associated assertion, Pritzker expressed deep remorse over sustaining contact with Epstein, who took his personal life in jail in 2019, and Maxwell, describing it as “horrible judgement”, with no excuse for not distancing himself sooner.
“Good stewardship additionally means defending Hyatt, significantly within the context of my affiliation with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell which I deeply remorse,” he mentioned within the assertion.
“I exercised horrible judgement in sustaining contact with them, and there’s no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner.”
Newly launched paperwork by the Justice Division present that Pritzker had ongoing and common contact with Epstein for years after the financier’s conviction on intercourse crime expenses in 2008, in keeping with The New York Occasions.
Pritzker is the newest highly effective determine going through repercussions after the discharge of hundreds of thousands of pages of paperwork exhibiting the depth of Epstein’s community of enterprise, political and cultural elites within the US and all over the world.
Goldman Sachs chief authorized counsel Kathryn Ruemmler resigned final week over her ties to Epstein. Norwegian police said that they had carried out searches of properties owned by former Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland as a part of a corruption investigation into his connections with the late intercourse offender.
The pinnacle of DP Ports World, the world’s largest port operator, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, was additionally changed over his shut friendship with Epstein, whereas economist Larry Summers resigned from the OpenAI board late final yr.
Former United Kingdom ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, has been requested to submit himself for an interview and reply questions as a part of a US congressional investigation into Epstein.
In a letter despatched to Mandelson by Democratic Representatives Robert Garcia and Suhas Subramanyam, each members of the US Home of Representatives Oversight Committee, the lawmakers mentioned it was “clear” that the previous ambassador “possessed intensive social and enterprise ties” to Epstein and requested that he make himself accessible for a transcribed interview.
Mandelson took up the celebrated put up because the UK’s ambassador to the US in February 2025. He was faraway from the function in September 2025 after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s authorities mentioned new data had come to gentle exhibiting the a lot deeper nature of his longstanding ties with Epstein.
The Mandelson controversy has led to requires Starmer to face down as prime minister, with critics questioning his judgement in appointing him to the ambassador’s function.
Starmer’s chief of employees and cupboard secretary have additionally stood down because of the scandal .
