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 recordsdata present disgraced intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein maintained shut relationships with distinguished figures related to Royal Caribbean. These figures embrace 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 a long time and continued after Jeffrey Epstein’s conviction in 2008, which required him to register as a intercourse offender.
The recordsdata 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 non-public island.
On February 16, 2026, Pritzker resigned from his function as Govt Chairman of Hyatt Resorts Company, citing what he known as “horrible judgment” in sustaining contact with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Tom Pritzker
Tom Pritzker was born into one among America’s wealthiest households. His father, Jay Pritzker, constructed a billionaire fortune by way of Hyatt Resorts 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 delivery magnates, that held a major possession stake in Royal Caribbean.
Below 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 choices 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 course till Could 2020.
Relationship with Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with Tom Pritzker was documented in extraordinary element within the Epstein recordsdata. In Epstein’s notorious “black e book,” Pritzker appeared with 12 cellphone numbers and was famous as “numero uno.” Looking “Pritzker” within the newly launched Division of Justice recordsdata from January 2026 generates greater than 7,000 outcomes.
The connection spanned at the very 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, one among Epstein’s most distinguished accusers, testified in a 2016 deposition that she had intercourse with Tom Pritzker. Like different males recognized within the Epstein recordsdata, 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 one among Royal Caribbean’s mega ships whereas it was docked in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The e-mail alternate exhibits Epstein agreeing to tour a ship on December 29, 2011. An worker from Little St. James, Epstein’s non-public island, later emailed Epstein with the topic line “Attract,” requesting IDs and a visitor listing 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 non-public 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 throughout 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 by way of cruise strains. In 1990, he based Onboard Media, producing in-cabin magazines, tv programming, and port advertising for cruise ships. He expanded into duty-free retail and onboard concessions, ultimately 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 companion for Royal Caribbean. In a 2018 interview, Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain mentioned Levine’s enterprise was “a game-changer,” including that his “execution was extraordinary.”
Levine additionally served as Mayor of Miami Seashore from 2013 to 2017 and mounted an unsuccessful marketing campaign for Florida governor in 2018.
Relationship with Epstein and Maxwell
Levine’s identify seems greater than 600 instances within the newly launched Epstein recordsdata. Epstein’s black e book contained 13 cellphone 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 very least a decade, from 2003 by way of 2013.
In a 2003 electronic mail, Levine referred to Epstein as “my good friend 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 informed 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 good friend to my spouse and I, nothing extra and nothing much less.”
Royal Caribbean in 2011
In 2011, Royal Caribbean’s possession construction underwent main adjustments. 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 practically 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 yr, 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 recordsdata embrace 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 identification of this sufferer is unknown and extra info is just not accessible, as figuring out info within the recordsdata is redacted.
The Epstein recordsdata reviewed for this text comprise no info that both Pritzker or Levine have been concerned within the rape and trafficking of the sufferer.
The recordsdata reviewed for this text comprise no allegations of legal wrongdoing by Royal Caribbean or proof the cruise line had information of Epstein’s actions.
A spokesperson for Tom Pritzker declined to remark, directing inquiries to his resignation assertion, wherein he mentioned 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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