Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker inadvertently understated a portion of her income by at least $80 million in a disclosure form required for her nomination to be U.S. Commerce secretary and has amended the document.<\/p>\n
Forms released online last night by the Office of Government Ethics show that Pritzker earned additional income for consulting work on hundreds of trusts, including family trusts, beyond what she disclosed last week. The omission, discovered by Pritzker\u2019s financial advisers, was due to a clerical error, said Susan Anderson, the nominee\u2019s spokeswoman.<\/p>\n
Documents released last week show Pritzker received $32.2 million for a decade\u2019s worth of consulting on the restructuring of domestic trusts. The filings released yesterday show she earned at least $80 million for that work, according to Bloomberg\u2019s compilation of the data. The revised total is in addition to the amount reported last week, according to Anderson.<\/p>\n
Hyatt Hotels (H)<\/p>\n
Pritzker, whose family founded Hyatt Hotels Corp (H) (H)., is scheduled to testify on her nomination before the Senate Commerce Committee tomorrow. She disclosed last week that she earned $54 million in consulting fees last year for a similar restructuring of trusts based in the Bahamas, also over 10 years. The Bahamas\u2019 income wasn\u2019t changed in the amended disclosure document.<\/p>\n
The nominee is worth more than $1.5 billion, according to estimates from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. If confirmed, she would be among the wealthiest Cabinet officials in U.S. history. <\/p>\n