President Biden has hand-picked billionaire hotel heiress and Obama insider Penny Pritzker to helm what promises to be an ambitious effort to transform Ukraine’s economy.
While addressing the agenda for Biden’s latest meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that the president would “introduce a special representative for Ukraine’s economic recovery, Penny Pritzker, who will focus on engaging the private sector, partner countries, and Ukrainian counterparts to generate international investment in Ukraine and work with Ukraine to make the reforms necessary to improve Ukraine’s business climate.”
Pritzker served as Secretary of Commerce in Obama’s second term. She and other members of the Hyatt Hotel fortune family are synonymous with Chicago, the former president’s hometown. Pritzker was instrumental in Obama’s meteoric political ascendancy, raising massive funds for his senate and presidential campaigns.
In 2001, Pritzker was chairwoman when Superior Bank, owned by her family, suffered a subprime mortgage collapse. That bank failure was the reason the incoming Obama administration passed her over for a cabinet post during his first term, so as to avoid taking public heat in the wake of the 2008 banking crisis that triggered the Great Recession, reported Breitbart.
Now, Pritzker has been tapped to martial massive public and private assets from the U.S. and foreign sources for the benefit of Ukraine, where her family originated.
The White House initially revealed the appointment on Thursday in a press release, which referred to “Pritzker’s extensive private sector experience,” time as head of the Commerce Department, as well as the Pritzker family’s roots in Ukraine that made her “uniquely qualified” to lead Ukraine’s economy.
Besides her heritage, Pritzker has had more recent ties to Ukraine. Under her leadership, the Commerce Department extended the billion-dollar loan guarantee to Ukraine that then-Vice President Biden leveraged to get the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden’s company Burisma fired, reported Breitbart.
The Dallas Express reached out to the State Department for comment about the appointment of Pritzker and any knowledge she may have about possible conflicts of interest involving then-Vice President Biden with regard to Ukraine or his family’s dealings in that country. A statement received in response read:
“Secretary Pritzker went through a detailed and thorough review of her financial disclosure with the State Department’s Ethics team and has entered into an ethics agreement whereby she has agreed to recuse herself from any matter that may pose a conflict of interest. Such potential conflicts of interest will be monitored throughout the period in which Secretary Pritzker serves in this role. She has accepted this role at the request of President Biden and Secretary Blinken.”