The Pritzker family earned its immense wealth, in part, through the Hyatt Hotel empire. | NY Post
By Dana Kennedy | The New York Post
Until recently, the most controversial members of Chicago’s ultra-rich and powerful Pritzker family were the billionaire Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker — a longtime Democratic activist and bail reform advocate — and his billionaire transgender cousin Jennifer, who’s funneled millions into universities, medical schools, gender clinics and nonprofits in support of “gender-affirming” medical care.
This week, however, they’ve been overshadowed by family members who are embroiled in two of the biggest news stories of the moment.
The governor’s sister Penny, 64, is front and center with the resignation Tuesday of Harvard president Claudine Gay over multiple instances of plagiarism. Penny has been, since February 2022, senior fellow of the Harvard Corporation — the governing board that recruited, hired and protected Gay in light of her scandals, including underplaying antisemitism at the school.
Meanwhile, cousin Thomas Pritzker is named in newly unsealed documents relating to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Virginia Giuffre claims she was trafficked overseas to have sex with the now 73-year-old, who is chairman of Hyatt Hotels and CEO of the Pritzker Organization.
The Pritzker family was ranked the country’s ninth-richest family in 2020.
They owe their wealth to Jay Pritzker (father of Thomas) who enrolled in the University of Chicago at 14, later graduated from Northwestern University Law School, and created the Hyatt Hotel chain, now a multi-national conglomerate, in 1957 at the age of 35.
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