Correction: An earlier model of this text attributed an electronic mail to Tom Pritzker. The e-mail was despatched by Nick Pritzker. The article has been up to date.
Newly launched paperwork from the Epstein information present disgraced intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein maintained shut relationships with distinguished figures linked to Royal Caribbean. These figures embody former Royal Caribbean board member Tom Pritzker and cruise business mogul Philip Levine, whose firm held an unique partnership with Royal Caribbean.
Epstein, alongside along with his former affiliate and lover Ghislaine Maxwell, maintained relationships with Pritzker and Levine that spanned many years and continued after Jeffrey Epstein’s conviction in 2008, which required him to register as a intercourse offender.
The information reveal that Pritzker invited Epstein aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in 2011 and {that a} sufferer alleges she was taken off a Royal Caribbean ship within the U.S. Virgin Islands and trafficked to Epstein’s personal island.
On February 16, 2026, Pritzker resigned from his function as Government Chairman of Hyatt Lodges Company, citing what he known as “horrible judgment” in sustaining contact with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Tom Pritzker
Tom Pritzker was born into considered one of America’s wealthiest households. His father, Jay Pritzker, constructed a billionaire fortune via Hyatt Lodges and diversified into journey and hospitality, buying a stake in Royal Caribbean by the late-Eighties. When Jay Pritzker died in January 1999, Tom inherited his father’s seat on Royal Caribbean’s Board of Administrators and his function in Cruise Associates.
Cruise Associates was a partnership between the Pritzker household and the Ofer household, Israeli transport magnates, that held a big possession stake in Royal Caribbean.
Beneath a shareholders settlement with the Wilhelmsen household, which co-founded Royal Caribbean in 1968, Cruise Associates and the Wilhelmsen household every nominated 4 administrators and agreed to vote their shares in favor of one another’s nominees. This settlement gave the three households a supermajority over Royal Caribbean’s board.
Pritzker was amongst a small group of males whose approval was required for Royal Caribbean’s most vital company selections for over a decade, till the shareholders settlement dissolved in August 2011. He continued to carry a board seat and have affect over the cruise line’s path till Might 2020.
Relationship with Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with Tom Pritzker was documented in extraordinary element within the Epstein information. In Epstein’s notorious “black ebook,” Pritzker appeared with 12 telephone numbers and was famous as “numero uno.” Looking “Pritzker” within the newly launched Division of Justice information from January 2026 generates greater than 7,000 outcomes.
The connection spanned at the least twenty years and continued even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. Emails present their communication continued into 2019, simply months earlier than Epstein’s arrest on federal intercourse trafficking expenses.
Virginia Giuffre, considered one of Epstein’s most distinguished accusers, testified in a 2016 deposition that she had intercourse with Tom Pritzker. Like different males recognized within the Epstein information, Pritzker vehemently denied all allegations and has by no means been charged with any crime.
Invites to Cruise Ships in 2001 and 2011
In December 2011, Pritzker invited Epstein to tour considered one of Royal Caribbean’s mega ships whereas it was docked in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The e-mail trade exhibits Epstein agreeing to tour a ship on December 29, 2011. An worker from Little St. James, Epstein’s personal island, later emailed Epstein with the topic line “Attract,” requesting IDs and a visitor checklist for these planning to board.
Maritime information present Royal Caribbean’s Attract of the Seas was docked at Crown Bay, St. Thomas’s cruise terminal, on December 29, 2011.
Crown Bay sits simply miles from Little St. James, the personal island the place Epstein dedicated lots of his crimes.
The invitation speaks to the closeness of Pritzkers and Epstein’s relationship. Even three years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction, Pritzker was snug sufficient to deliver him aboard a Royal Caribbean ship.
Ten years earlier, Pritzker invited Ghislaine Maxwell aboard the Journey of the Seas through the ship’s christening in New York Metropolis on November 10, 2001. The invitation, together with different emails, exhibits Pritzker had a direct relationship with Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on federal intercourse trafficking expenses for crimes dedicated alongside Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
Philip Levine
Philip Levine made his fortune via cruise traces. In 1990, he based Onboard Media, producing in-cabin magazines, tv programming, and port advertising and marketing for cruise ships. He expanded into duty-free retail and onboard concessions, finally promoting the mixed operation to the luxurious conglomerate LVMH in 2000 for reportedly greater than $100 million.
In 2011, Levine based Royal Media Companions, which turned the unique onboard media accomplice for Royal Caribbean. In a 2018 interview, Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain stated Levine’s enterprise was “a game-changer,” including that his “execution was extraordinary.”
Levine additionally served as Mayor of Miami Seaside from 2013 to 2017 and mounted an unsuccessful marketing campaign for Florida governor in 2018.
Relationship with Epstein and Maxwell
Levine’s title seems greater than 600 instances within the newly launched Epstein information. Epstein’s black ebook contained 13 telephone numbers related to Levine, together with numbers for his driver, housekeepers, and enterprise places of work. Emails present Levine maintained a relationship with Epstein spanning at the least a decade, from 2003 via 2013.
In a 2003 electronic mail, Levine referred to Epstein as “my pal Jeffrey Epstein” whereas making an attempt to rearrange a enterprise introduction. In 2010, two years after Epstein’s conviction, Levine wrote to Epstein, “You’re a nice man and I do know all good issues will come to you going ahead.”
Levine’s closest tie in Epstein’s community was to Ghislaine Maxwell. Emails from the early 2000s reveal a sexually express and apparently romantic relationship between them. In a December 2001 electronic mail, Maxwell wrote to Levine, “Are you upset that I instructed him to take a hike and that I wished to be with you in any respect prices?” In one other electronic mail, Maxwell wrote that Levine was “hung like a horse.”
When questioned about these emails by the Miami New Instances, Levine denied any romantic relationship, stating it was “that of a pal to my spouse and I, nothing extra and nothing much less.”
Royal Caribbean in 2011
In 2011, Royal Caribbean’s possession construction underwent main modifications. That June, Sammy Ofer, whose household managed half of Cruise Associates alongside Tom Pritzker, died at age 89. Two months later, on August 24, the shareholders settlement between Cruise Associates and the Wilhelmsen household was terminated, ending almost twenty years of unified management of Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean introduced that Cruise Associates deliberate to distribute its shares to the person household companions, successfully dissolving the Pritzker-Ofer partnership.
The identical 12 months, Philip Levine based Royal Media Companions, which secured an unique onboard media partnership with Royal Caribbean.
As these main shifts unfolded at Royal Caribbean, Jeffrey Epstein was in common contact with the important thing figures concerned. Emails present Epstein met with Pritzker and communicated with Levine a number of instances earlier than, throughout, and after 2011. In December 2011, 4 months after the shareholders settlement dissolved, Pritzker invited Epstein aboard the Attract of the Seas.
Epstein Sexual Assault Sufferer (Set off Warning)
The Epstein information embody a sufferer who states she traveled to the U.S. Virgin Islands on a Royal Caribbean ship and was later raped off of the cruise ship by Epstein when she was 17. The identical sufferer alleges she was sexually trafficked and raped by Epstein in Florida when she was 5 years previous. The id of this sufferer is unknown and extra data just isn’t obtainable, as figuring out data within the information is redacted.
The Epstein information reviewed for this text comprise no data that both Pritzker or Levine had been concerned within the rape and trafficking of the sufferer.
The information reviewed for this text comprise no allegations of legal wrongdoing by Royal Caribbean or proof the cruise line had data of Epstein’s actions.
A spokesperson for Tom Pritzker declined to remark, directing inquiries to his resignation assertion, during which he stated he “deeply regrets” his affiliation with Epstein and Maxwell. His assertion made no point out of Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean and Philip Levine didn’t reply to requests for remark.
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