"Make Rez Then Give Me Dates." The Pritzker Emails Are Worse Than the Apology.

# "Make Rez Then Give Me Dates." The Pritzker Emails Are Worse Than the Apology.

Yesterday, Thomas J. Pritzker resigned as Executive Chairman of Hyatt Hotels. Effective immediately. Won't seek re-election to the board. In his statement, he called his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein "terrible judgement" and said there was "no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner."

That's a nice sentence. Here's a better one, from September 5, 2016 — eight years after Epstein's conviction on sex crime charges:

"Make Rez then give me dates so I can VIP them."

That's Pritzker, texting Epstein about a trip to Tokyo. His hotel. His chain. His VIP list.

The Grand Hyatt Tokyo, September 2016

Eight days after Pritzker's "Make Rez" text, Lesley Groff — Epstein's executive assistant, later named as a co-conspirator — emailed the booking confirmation. Subject line: "Tom Pritzker's office re Grand Hyatt Tokyo!!"

The details:

- Check-in: September 22, 2016

- Check-out: September 28, 2016

- Room: Grand Club Room Twin, upgraded from Grand Room Twin

- Rate: "Friends and family" — 31,600 JPY per night

- CC'd: Karyna Shuliak and Bella Klein

Karyna Shuliak was Epstein's girlfriend at the time. Bella Klein worked in his office. Lesley Groff coordinated the logistics. Pritzker provided the hotel and the VIP treatment.

This isn't "terrible judgement." This is the Executive Chairman of a Fortune 500 hotel company using corporate resources to VIP a convicted sex offender at his own property. In 2016. Eight years after the plea deal.

The Picnic Table

The Pritzker-Epstein correspondence isn't just hotel reservations. It's a window into who was at the table — literally.

May 7, 2016. Pritzker to Epstein:

"Yep. If slow growth becomes new normal, it will stress everything. Ended up at a picnic table w Hank, Tim, Ray and Bob. Will debrief but deep consensus. Now move from economic to political sphere."

Hank. Tim. Ray. Bob. A picnic table. "Deep consensus." Then straight to Epstein for the debrief.

If those first names are who they appear to be — and in the context of macroeconomic policy discussions about slow growth and political disruption, there aren't many Hanks, Tims, Rays, and Bobs who fit — then Pritzker was channeling the highest levels of American economic thinking directly to a convicted sex offender.

Same email chain, Pritzker asks about Saudi Arabia. Suggests CSIS and ASG put it on the agenda for board meetings. Discusses the president of Tsinghua University. Wonders aloud whether Chinese communism is "more like a living document."

Epstein's response: "turkey, saudi, egypt, maybe us. authoritarian, on the rise."

This is May 2016. Six months before the presidential election.

"Lunch Was AMAZING. Tom Barrack Was Floored."

September 5, 2016. Same email thread as the Tokyo VIP request. Epstein to Pritzker:

"lunch was AMAZING. tom barrack was floored."

Tom Barrack. Chairman of Trump's inaugural committee. Later indicted for acting as an unregistered agent of the United Arab Emirates. Acquitted in 2022, but the relationship is documented.

Epstein name-dropping Barrack to Pritzker while arranging VIP hotel stays. Two months before the 2016 election. The networks overlap in ways that should concern anyone who reads the actual documents.

The Deutsche Bank Problem

Pritzker wasn't the only one maintaining the relationship. At the institutional level, Deutsche Bank was actively opening new accounts for Epstein's entities — in 2016, the same year Pritzker was VIP-ing him in Tokyo.

January 19, 2016. Wayne Salit, Deutsche Bank Americas, emails Daniel Sabba:

"I do not have any further guidance on whether ARRC would permit a new brokerage account for Mr. Epstein or not."

ARRC — the Americas Reputational Risk Committee. The internal body specifically designed to prevent Deutsche Bank from doing business with people who would damage the bank's reputation. Like, say, a convicted sex offender.

The next day, Todd Stevens forwarded the chain to Chip Packard, Managing Director at Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, 345 Park Avenue, New York: "Are you supportive of this account opening?"

Carol Saracco from the ARRC responded: "Given that it's been a year and this is a new brokerage account, can you update diligence report on Epstein/companies? Let's see if anything comes up and take it from there."

"Let's see if anything comes up."

For Jeffrey Epstein. In 2016. A registered sex offender with a plea deal that made international headlines. "Let's see if anything comes up."

The account was for Gratitude America, Ltd. — one of Epstein's entities. The NYDFS would eventually fine Deutsche Bank $150 million for these compliance failures. But in January 2016, the compliance officers were still asking each other whether "anything" would "come up."

The Documents Are Working

Tom Pritzker resigned yesterday because the documents exist. Because the DOJ released them. Because people can search them, read them, and connect the dots.

We know this because we host 92,188 of those DOJ documents. We know what people search for. We know what they find. We know which names generate the most queries and which documents generate the most reads.

We won't tell you who's searching — that's private. But we'll tell you what the documents say, because that's public.

The documents say Tom Pritzker VIP'd a convicted sex offender at his own hotel chain in 2016. The documents say Deutsche Bank's own compliance officers couldn't figure out if "anything would come up" on Jeffrey Epstein. The documents say Epstein was having lunch with Tom Barrack and debriefing Pritzker on geopolitical strategy involving Saudi Arabia, China, and the upcoming American election.

"Terrible judgement" is a nice way to put it.

The emails are worse.

---

*All documents referenced are from DOJ releases indexed in the DugganUSA Epstein Files database (92,188 documents). Searchable at epstein.dugganusa.com.*

---

*Her name was Renee Nicole Good.*

*His name was Alex Jeffery Pretti.*