May 16--Chicago billionaire Penny Pritzker intends to resign from corporate boards, including that of Hyatt Hotels Corp., and reported that she received nearly $54 million in consulting fees last year from an off-shore Bahamian trust, the U.S. Commerce secretary nominee said in documents released Wednesday.

The disclosures are part of a 184-page report and 18-page letter Pritzker released on her financial background as part of the confirmation process. Her confirmation hearing before a Senate committee is scheduled for May 23.

If confirmed, Pritzker will become one of the wealthiest people to serve in the U.S. Cabinet. A top fundraiser and personal friend of President Barack Obama, she is likely to be questioned about her and her family's business operations, including the family's use of off-shore trusts established when Pritzker was a child.

The Pritzker family, whose wealth is derived in part from Hyatt Hotels, real estate developments and an industrial conglomerate, includes at least 10 members who are billionaires. Due to a family dispute that dates back to the passing of Pritzker's uncle Jay in 1999, family members agreed to divest their holdings and divide up the proceeds over a 10-year period, which ended in December 2011. Pritzker, her cousin Tom Pritzker and their relative Nick Pritzker managed that process.

For that service, Pritzker received the $53.6 million fee. According to a source close to the family, that is the only income she received from those trusts, and Pritzker paid taxes on that income.

Now that the family breakup is finished, Pritzker is requesting that the trustees of her off-shore trusts begin the legal process of appointing a U.S. trustee, which would, in effect, bring the money home.

"She has made this request because it would permit all the trusts for the benefit of her and her immediate family to be more effectively managed and efficiently administered," the source said. "She has no control over this legal process, its timing or outcome."

Pritzker listed liabilities in addition to a vast array of investments. She said she owed PSP Capital Resources L.L.C. between $25 million and $50 million on each of two loans, one for a Colorado residence and one for "investment operations."

Pritzker reported owing between $250,001 and $500,000 to American Express and between $15,001 and $50,000 on both a Neiman Marcus credit card and Chase credit card. The disclosure form requires listing the largest amounts owed during the reporting period, generally the prior year.

Pritzker's disclosure amounted to a detailed window into both her wealth and investment strategies. She reported investments in commercial and residential real estate, government bonds, art, casinos, timber, senior living communities, housing, an airplane leasing company, wood products, software and even agricultural land in Uruguay.

Among the largest assets she itemized were those in a category that put their value at more than $50 million each. These included her Class B shares in Hyatt; a Doubleline Total Return Bond Fund; a GMO Quality Fund; and a Templeton Global Bond Fund.

Pritzker has pursued the commerce secretary post knowing her wealth would be displayed. Among her friends she is respected for fighting her way into a leadership role among her male-dominated family businesses, starting from a young age when she asked her grandfather, A.N. Pritzker, to teach her accounting and later got a law degree and MBA from Stanford.

Of A.N.'s 13 grandchildren, only Penny and her brother J.B., who also lives in Chicago, have been involved prominently in politics. Pritzker oversaw a record-breaking fundraising effort in 2008 as Obama's national finance chair, money that many political observers say sustained him during a bruising Democratic primary against Hillary Clinton.

She later served on two White House councils on the economy, which, at one point, placed her in a room with a union chief funding an attack campaign against her and her family over a contract dispute for hotel workers at Hyatts in Chicago and other cities.

Since Obama nominated Pritzker for the post, criticism has been muted but could come from both Democrats, who view her as anti-union, and Republicans, who have raised the issue of the tax shelters. Some critics also could point to the family's involvement in a failed Hinsdale bank.

In an 18-page letter to a Commerce Department lawyer, Pritzker said if confirmed as head of the agency she would resign from her position Hyatt's board but keep her stock.

She said that while the duties of Commerce secretary may involve matters that impact Hyatt or other hotel-related entities, the agency has determined she does not need to divest her interests because she would recuse herself from matters posing a conflict of interest.

She said she has both Hyatt common stock and restricted stock units. The restricted units carry greater voting power and have enabled some members of the family to cash out and others to maintain control of the company. Pritzker has said her restricted stock holdings would be converted to common shares upon her resignation from the board.

The letter detailed 221 financial holdings she will divest within 90 days of her confirmation, including those in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway; Charles Schwab Corp.; metal packaging company Crown Holdings; Directv; Fiserv, and the family's industrial conglomerate Marmon Holdings, Inc., which Berkshire Hathaway controls, and many others.

In addition to stepping down from Hyatt's board, Pritzker, the letter said, also will resign positions with more than 150 other entities, including her investment firm, PSP Capital Partners; the Pritzker Family Foundation, L.L.C.; Artemis Real Estate Partners, L.L.C.; the Council on Foreign Relations; the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; and fundraising campaigns and other positions at Harvard University.

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