Matthew Pritzker, whose uncles founded the global Hyatt hotel chain, has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who is suing the 41-year-old Chicago-based entrepreneur for $25 million.
The lawsuit filed in New York on Thanksgiving under the state’s Adult Survivors Act with Thursday being the final deadline for such claims to be brought before judges.
The accuser alleges investor and philanthropist Pritzker ‘engaged in sexual acts without her consent…while she was incapacitated and could not provide consent.’
The court documents obtained by DailyMail.com state that the alleged ‘sexual offences’ took place ‘in or about May 31, 2009’ in the Big Apple’s Upper Manhattan district.
‘The relief sought is: an amount to be determined at trial but in no event less than Twenty Five Million Dollars ($25,000,000.00) in compensatory and punitive damages, together with attorneys’ fees and costs, and all applicable interest,’ the summons reads.
Matthew Pritzker has been accused of sexual assault by a woman who is suing the 41-year-old Chicago-based entrepreneur for $25 million
His uncles founded the global Hyatt hotel chain. Pictured: The first Hyatt Regency property in Atlanta
The court documents obtained by DailyMail.com state that the alleged ‘sexual offences’ took place ‘in or about May 31, 2009’ in the Big Apple’s Upper Manhattan district
The alleged victim’s legal team Raju Sundaran and Justin T. Kelton order Pritzker in the summons to respond within thirty days or face the risk of being hit with a default judgment.
Such rulings mean the court will automatically side with the person bringing the lawsuit if the accused fails to reply or declines to appear before judges.
No further details are provided in the court documents, but DailyMail.com has approached her attorneys and Matthew Pritzker for comment,
The Adult Survivors Act was signed into law in May last year by Governor Kathy Hochul.
The legislation has been used to sue New York mayor Eric Adams, as well as celebrities such as rap music mogul Sean Combs, actor Jamie Foxx and ex-president Donald Trump.
Matthew Pritzker has largely shunned the limelight since suing his businessman billionaire father Robert, whose brothers Donald and Jay founded the Hyatt chain, in 2005.
He and his sister Liesel, a former child actress who appeared in the 1997 Harrison Ford blockbuster Air Force One, accused him of looting $1 billion from their trust funds when he divorced from their mother Irene in the 1990s.
The accuser alleges investor and philanthropist Pritzker ‘engaged in sexual acts without her consent…while she was incapacitated and could not provide consent’
‘The relief sought is: an amount to be determined at trial but in no event less than Twenty Five Million Dollars ($25,000,000.00) in compensatory and punitive damages, together with attorneys’ fees and costs, and all applicable interest,’ the summons reads
The two Pritzker siblings eventually agreed to drop the case in return for a settlement worth $900 million.
Matthew also had a brief brush with the law in 2009 when a Chicago cyclist accused him of deliberately knocking him off his bike while he was driving his SUV, but the case was dismissed.
His investment portfolio largely focuses on real estate, but he was also a major backer in the now-defunct Chicago-based food firm Homemade Pizza Co that was wound up in 2014.
The extended Pritzker family is one of the wealthiest in the United States, with a combined net worth of $ 36.9 billion. Eleven members of the family are billionaires.
Matthew’s cousins, Tony, 62, Penny, 64 and J.B. Pritzker, 58, have an estimated combined net worth of $10 billion as the main heirs of the global Hyatt hotel chain.
J.B. Pritzker was elected as the Democrat governor of Illinois in 2019, while Penny Pritzker was Secretary of Commerce under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017.
Another cousin Tom Pritzker, the son of co-founder Jay Pritzker, currently serves as the Executive Chairman of the Hyatt Hotels and Resorts Corporation.
In 2019 Tom, 72, was named in documents as one of several prominent men who Virginia Roberts was ordered to have sex with by late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Tom tried unsuccessfully to prevent the publishing of court documents and has denied the allegations.
Matthew Pritzker has largely shunned the limelight since suing his businessman billionaire father Robert (pictured), whose brothers Donald and Jay founded the Hyatt chain, in 2005
Earlier this year Tony and Jeanne’s son Nick Pritzker, 29, a marijuana entrepreneur, purchased a circular home for $12.5million, which has been seen in films such as Lethal Weapon 2 and Fast and the Furious.
The descendants of the Pritzker empire all stem from Abram Nicholas Pritzker, 1896-1986, who was an attorney and real estate investor, father to Jay Pritzker, Robert, and Donald Pritzker.
Jay and Donald Pritzker co-founded the Hyatt Hotels Corporation, which went on to be one of the largest hotel and resort chains in the world.
The Hyatt Hotel chain includes hotels operating under the Hyatt brand such as the Park Hyatt, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Regency and Hyatt Place.
They also run high-end brands such as Miraval, Andaz, Thompson Hotels, and Dream Hotels which cater to the wellness, luxury, boutique, and art-and-design interested clientele.