Questions grow over Pritzker's ties to COVID-19 testing companies

CHICAGO - As Illinois surges in COVID-19 testing, there are growing questions about Governor JB Pritzker's ties to companies providing coronavirus tests.

The governor says he has put his fortune in a blind trust, but now some of the companies the Pritzker family has invested in may be making money off the pandemic.

“It is shameful,” said Illinois GOP Chairman Tim Schneider.

Schneider says The Pritzker Group, which is an investing firm, is connected to at least two companies creating COVID-19 tests.

The governor says he has stepped down from his position at his family’s venture capital company and no longer makes investing decisions.

“Well, as you know, the very definition of a blind trust is that it's blind,” Pritzker said Tuesday. “I really have been uninvolved for three years so if there's any anything like that, I would not know about it.”

Neither company in question have contracts with Illinois, but Cue Health was awarded a federal contract for testing worth $13 million.

David Greising with the Better Government Association says this was bound to happen with Pritzker’s connections to companies.

"Nothing illegal,” Greising said.

This comes as the governor says when it comes to testing, out of the most populous states, Illinois is now testing more residents per capita and that we may be on the other side of the peak.

“May be heading downwards now again as with more and more days behind us, we can follow and see, is this a blip or is it…really consistently going down,” said Dr. Ngozi Ezike, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.

The governor says whether or not we really are coming off the peak, all four regions in Illinois look like they are on track to move to Phase 3 of his reopening plan in ten days.