Hyatt hotel chain executive steps down after Epstein ties exposed

The executive chairman of the Hyatt hotel chain has stepped down after emails revealing his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light.

US businessman Thomas Pritzker maintained contact with Epstein well after the latter was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.

Epstein died in prison in 2019 awaiting charges of sex trafficking girls, in what was ruled a suicide.

“Good stewardship… means protecting Hyatt, particularly in the context of my association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which I deeply regret,” Pritzker says in a statement picked up by US media.

Maxwell, Epstein’s associate, is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in a conspiracy to traffic girls with the disgraced financier.

Hyatt in a statement says — without mentioning Epstein — that Pritzker would retire from his role as executive chairman of the board of directors and that he would not seek reelection to the board at the company’s shareholders meeting in May.

US media reported on an email exchange from 2018 where Epstein asked Pritzker to help secure reservations for a woman traveling in Asia.

The woman told Pritzker she was “going to try to find a new girlfriend for Jeffrey,” to which Pritzker replied: “May the Force be with you.”

Pritzker is the cousin of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, a possible contender for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028.