Newly released documents from the Epstein files show disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein maintained close relationships with prominent figures connected to Royal Caribbean. These figures include former Royal Caribbean board member Tom Pritzker and cruise industry mogul Philip Levine, whose company holds an exclusive partnership with Royal Caribbean.
Epstein, along with his former associate and lover Ghislaine Maxwell, maintained relationships with Pritzker and Levine that spanned decades and continued after Jeffrey Epstein’s conviction in 2008, which required him to register as a sex offender.
The files reveal that Pritzker invited Epstein aboard a Royal Caribbean cruise ship in 2011 and that a victim alleges she was taken off a Royal Caribbean ship in the U.S. Virgin Islands and trafficked to Epstein’s private island.
On February 16, 2026, Pritzker resigned from his role as Executive Chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, citing what he called “terrible judgment” in maintaining contact with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Tom Pritzker
Tom Pritzker was born into one of America’s wealthiest families. His father, Jay Pritzker, built a billionaire fortune through Hyatt Hotels and diversified into travel and hospitality, acquiring a stake in Royal Caribbean by the late-1980s. When Jay Pritzker died in January 1999, Tom inherited his father’s seat on Royal Caribbean’s Board of Directors and his role in Cruise Associates.
Cruise Associates was a partnership between the Pritzker family and the Ofer family, Israeli shipping magnates, that held a significant ownership stake in Royal Caribbean.
Under a shareholders agreement with the Wilhelmsen family, which co-founded Royal Caribbean in 1968, Cruise Associates and the Wilhelmsen family each nominated four directors and agreed to vote their shares in favor of each other’s nominees. This agreement gave the three families a supermajority over Royal Caribbean’s board.
Pritzker was among a small group of men whose approval was required for Royal Caribbean’s most significant corporate decisions for over a decade, until the shareholders agreement dissolved in August 2011. He continued to hold a board seat and have influence over the cruise line’s direction until May 2020.
Relationship with Epstein
Jeffrey Epstein’s relationship with Tom Pritzker was documented in extraordinary detail in the Epstein files. In Epstein’s infamous “black book,” Pritzker appeared with 12 phone numbers and was noted as “numero uno.” Searching “Pritzker” in the newly released Department of Justice files from January 2026 generates more than 7,000 results.
The relationship spanned at least two decades and continued even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. On July 22, 2009, the day Epstein was released from an 18-month sentence in a Florida county jail, Pritzker sent him an email: “I’m really happy that you are OUT, and looking forward to seeing you when possible.” Emails show their communication continued into 2019, just months before Epstein’s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges.
Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, testified in a 2016 deposition that she had sex with Tom Pritzker. Like other men identified in the Epstein files, Pritzker vehemently denied all allegations and has never been charged with any crime.
Invitations to Cruise Ships in 2001 and 2011
In December 2011, Pritzker invited Epstein to tour one of Royal Caribbean’s mega ships while it was docked in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The email exchange shows Epstein agreeing to tour a ship on December 29, 2011. An employee from Little St. James, Epstein’s private island, later emailed Epstein with the subject line “Allure,” requesting IDs and a guest list for those planning to board.
Maritime records show Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas was docked at Crown Bay, St. Thomas’s cruise terminal, on December 29, 2011.
Crown Bay sits just miles from Little St. James, the private island where Epstein committed many 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 comfortable enough to bring him aboard a Royal Caribbean ship.
Ten years earlier, Pritzker invited Ghislaine Maxwell aboard the Adventure of the Seas during the ship’s christening in New York City on November 10, 2001. The invitation, along with other emails, shows Pritzker had a direct relationship with Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking charges for crimes committed alongside Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
Philip Levine
Philip Levine made his fortune through cruise lines. In 1990, he founded Onboard Media, producing in-cabin magazines, television programming, and port marketing for cruise ships. He expanded into duty-free retail and onboard concessions, eventually selling the combined operation to the luxury conglomerate LVMH in 2000 for reportedly more than $100 million.
In 2011, Levine founded Royal Media Partners, which became the exclusive onboard media partner for Royal Caribbean. In a 2018 interview, Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Fain said Levine’s business was “a game-changer,” adding that his “execution was extraordinary.”
Levine also served as Mayor of Miami Beach from 2013 to 2017 and mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Florida governor in 2018.
Relationship with Epstein and Maxwell
Levine’s name appears more than 600 times in the newly released Epstein files. Epstein’s black book contained 13 phone numbers associated with Levine, including numbers for his driver, housekeepers, and business offices. Emails show Levine maintained a relationship with Epstein spanning at least a decade, from 2003 through 2013.
In a 2003 email, Levine referred to Epstein as “my friend Jeffrey Epstein” while trying to arrange a business introduction. In 2010, two years after Epstein’s conviction, Levine wrote to Epstein, “You are a great guy and I know all good things will come to you going forward.”
Levine’s closest tie in Epstein’s network was to Ghislaine Maxwell. Emails from the early 2000s reveal a sexually explicit and apparently romantic relationship between them. In a December 2001 email, Maxwell wrote to Levine, “Are you upset that I told him to take a hike and that I wanted to be with you at all costs?” In another email, Maxwell wrote that Levine was “hung like a horse.”
When questioned about these emails by the Miami New Times, Levine denied any romantic relationship, stating it was “that of a friend to my wife and I, nothing more and nothing less.”
Royal Caribbean in 2011
In 2011, Royal Caribbean’s ownership structure underwent major changes. That June, Sammy Ofer, whose family controlled half of Cruise Associates alongside Tom Pritzker, died at age 89. Two months later, on August 24, the shareholders agreement between Cruise Associates and the Wilhelmsen family was terminated, ending nearly two decades of unified control of Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean announced that Cruise Associates planned to distribute its shares to the individual family partners, effectively dissolving the Pritzker-Ofer partnership.
The same year, Philip Levine founded Royal Media Partners, which secured an exclusive onboard media partnership with Royal Caribbean.
As these major shifts unfolded at Royal Caribbean, Jeffrey Epstein was in regular contact with the key figures involved. Emails show Epstein met with Pritzker and communicated with Levine multiple times before, during, and after 2011. In December 2011, four months after the shareholders agreement dissolved, Pritzker invited Epstein aboard the Allure of the Seas.
Epstein Sexual Assault Victim (Trigger Warning)
The Epstein files include a victim 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 same victim alleges she was sexually trafficked and raped by Epstein in Florida when she was 5 years old. The identity of this victim is unknown and additional information is not available, as identifying information in the files is redacted.
The Epstein files reviewed for this article contain no information that either Pritzker or Levine were involved in the rape and trafficking of the victim.
The files reviewed for this article contain no allegations of criminal wrongdoing by Royal Caribbean or evidence the cruise line had knowledge of Epstein’s activities.
A spokesperson for Tom Pritzker declined to comment, directing inquiries to his resignation statement, in which he said he “deeply regrets” his association with Epstein and Maxwell. His statement made no mention of Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean and Philip Levine did not respond to requests for comment. Philip Levine (through his company Royal Media Partners) continues to maintain his exclusive partnership with Royal Caribbean.
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