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A British individual has come forward with revelations to the BBC suggesting that Howard Lutnick, the current US commerce secretary appointed in 2025, did not disclose a business connection with the notorious financier Jeffrey Epstein. Simon Andriesz, who formerly held a managing director role at a Wall Street firm, uncovered an email exchange dating back to 2018, which indicated Lutnick and Epstein had discussed collaborative prospects involving a start-up company they were both linked to.
Andriesz took this discovery, originating from the vast trove of documents released about Epstein, to members of the influential House Oversight Committee prior to Lutnick’s scheduled testimony in May. When questioned, Lutnick maintained that he only became aware earlier this year that Epstein had invested in the firm. The US Commerce Department, representing Lutnick, stated there was no proof of any misconduct. In addition, files revealed that in 2013, one of Lutnick’s companies planned to enter a business venture with then-Prince Andrew, a figure also associated with Epstein, aiming to capitalize on the former UK royal’s contacts. Andriesz described the arrangement as a £1 million loan to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor “to basically buy a prince.”
While examining the millions of documents connected to Epstein, Andriesz was startled to find his own name included. These materials encompassed interviews he had given to the FBI amid disputes with his prior employer, BGC Partners—a brokerage firm within Lutnick’s Cantor Fitzgerald group. Andriesz had raised internal alarms in 2016 about accounting irregularities, but was dismissed from the company the following year. Despite this, some of his complaints later resulted in BGC being fined $3 million by a US derivatives regulator for multiple violations related to supervision and record-keeping.
BGC, however, dismissed Andriesz’s claims as “categorically false” and stated that investigations by authorities across different regions found no evidence to support his accusations. Between 2020 and 2021, after Epstein’s death in jail, Andriesz spoke with the FBI regarding BGC and Lutnick. Although Andriesz alleged undisclosed business relations between Lutnick and Epstein in these discussions, the FBI did not pursue further investigation. Expressing frustration, Andriesz told the BBC, “I’m exposing Howard Lutnick’s relationship, financial links, with Jeffrey Epstein, and there’s no interest.”
Lutnick’s appointment as commerce secretary in 2025 saw him divest his Cantor Fitzgerald shares and hand over control of the company to his sons. Subsequently, in a podcast interview, he claimed to have met Epstein only once, around two decades earlier, describing his behavior as “gross.” However, evidence from the Epstein files contradicted this narrative—among it, a photograph from December 2012 showing Lutnick and Epstein together on Epstein’s island in the Caribbean, Little St James. This image cast doubt on Lutnick’s stated level of contact with Epstein, intensifying scrutiny of his previously undisclosed business dealings
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