Introduction
Howard Lutnick was appointed US commerce secretary by President Trump in 2025.
A British individual has disclosed to the BBC how he uncovered evidence suggesting that his former employer, Howard Lutnick—currently the US commerce secretary—did not disclose a business relationship with the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Simon Andriesz, formerly a managing director at a Wall Street firm, found an email chain from 2018 in which Lutnick and Epstein discussed the prospects of a start-up business in which both were involved.
Andriesz shared his findings, derived from millions of released Epstein files, with US politicians on the influential House Oversight Committee prior to Lutnick's appearance there in May.
Lutnick informed the committee that, to the best of his knowledge, he only became aware this year that Epstein had been an investor in the firm. The US Commerce Department, speaking on his behalf, stated there was no evidence of wrongdoing.
Additionally, Andriesz discovered in the files that one of Lutnick's firms had planned in 2013 to enter into business with another Epstein-linked figure, then-Prince Andrew, by commercially leveraging contacts the former UK trade envoy had established.
"What it involved was a loan to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of £1m... to basically buy a prince," he tells File on 4 Investigates.
Searching 3.5 million documents
"I was completely shocked," says Andriesz, recalling the moment he found his own name in the Epstein files—a vast collection of documents, photos, videos, and emails related to the notorious sex offender, released by the US government over the past year.
The specific files mentioning Andriesz related to interviews he gave to the FBI while in dispute with his former employer, BGC Partners—a financial brokerage firm that is part of Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald group.
In 2016, Andriesz had internally raised concerns about accounting irregularities at the firm. He was dismissed in 2017, but some of his allegations later resulted in BGC being ordered to pay a $3 million (£2.24 million) penalty by the US derivatives regulator for "numerous supervision, reporting, and record-keeping violations."
Simon Andriesz, now living in Cornwall, has been in dispute with his former employers in the US for several years.
BGC stated that Andriesz's allegations lacked credibility and were "categorically false." The company said the claims had been investigated by authorities in multiple jurisdictions which, according to BGC, did not substantiate the allegations.
Andriesz spoke to the FBI about BGC and about Lutnick in 2020-21—after Epstein had died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The Epstein files show Andriesz alleged that Lutnick had undeclared business ties with Epstein. The FBI did not investigate these accusations.
Andriesz tells the BBC he was disappointed that few had seemed interested in what he had discovered: "I'm exposing Howard Lutnick's relationship, financial links, with Jeffrey Epstein, and there's no interest."
Jeffrey Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
In 2025, Lutnick was appointed US commerce secretary, at which point he sold his shares in Cantor Fitzgerald and transferred control of the firm to his sons.
Later that year, on a podcast, he claimed he had only met Epstein once, 20 years earlier, when they were neighbours in Manhattan, and described Epstein's behaviour as "gross."
However, following the release of the Epstein files, inconsistencies emerged in this account. A photo showed Lutnick with Epstein on the sex offender's Caribbean island, Little St James, in December 2012.
Four years earlier, in Florida, Epstein had been imprisoned for two charges of soliciting prostitution, including one involving a minor.
Andriesz suspected there was more to find in the Epstein files that could support his claims—if only people knew where to look within the 3.5 million pages of documents.
"Everyone was searching 'Lutnick'," he says. He knew, however, that Cantor Fitzgerald executives preferred to use initials rather than full names in their emails.
Andriesz searched for "HWL" (Howard William Lutnick) and found emails sent to and from Epstein in 2018. Epstein had communicated directly with Lutnick about a digital advertising company called Adfin, in which both Epstein and Lutnick's firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, had invested.
Andriesz identified correspondence where Epstein directly asked the HWL account: "what do you think the prospects for adfin are?"
Lutnick responded: "Producing revenue finally. This is their year. Next 12 months they need to become economically self-sufficient."
Andriesz then shared this information with US politicians on the House Oversight Committee, the US Congress's main investigatory committee.
Lutnick agreed to appear before the committee in an off-camera hearing in May.
He has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein and told the committee:
"I unequivocally condemn the conduct attributed to Jeffrey Epstein and everyone who participated in his illegal activities. The survivors of his crimes deserve our respect and support."
Lutnick reiterated to the committee that he did not know until this year that Epstein had been a co-investor in Adfin. However, Democrats on the committee accused him of lying and all 21 signed a letter demanding his resignation.
The US Commerce Department described the allegations against Lutnick as "a desperate partisan distraction from the historic work of this Administration," adding that the commerce secretary has answered hundreds of questions before Congress and there is "no evidence of wrongdoing or legitimate cause for concern."
'To buy a prince'
Another discovery made by Andriesz in the Epstein files concerned Lutnick's association with two other individuals closely linked to Epstein: then-Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.
Lutnick had been friends with Ferguson since the 1990s and was a guest at Princess Eugenie's wedding in 2018.
Documents in the files revealed that Lutnick's firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, had a plan in 2013 "to buy a prince," as Andriesz describes it, aiming to exploit Andrew's contacts with wealthy individuals and sovereign institutions.
Under the proposed terms of the deal, £1 million would be loaned to a firm controlled by the prince, which would then be obligated to conduct business exclusively with Cantor Fitzgerald.
Epstein warned the prince's business aide, David Stern, against the deal, according to the files. One of Epstein's concerns was the exclusivity clause, which would have restricted Andrew to introducing wealthy clients only to Cantor Fitzgerald.
The files indicate that advisers to both Lutnick and the former prince discussed the deal for four months, from August to November 2013, but it ultimately did not proceed.
When asked about the deal, Cantor Fitzgerald did not deny the discussions but stated it did not enter into business with the former prince. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor did not respond to a request for comment.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles in November 2025.
A world away
Andriesz, now 57, resides in a quiet Cornish seaside village, far removed from Wall Street. He states that the litigation over the past decade has severely impacted his career, finances, and health.
Despite receiving a financial award of $420,000 (£313,000) for his whistleblowing from the US regulator, Andriesz asserts that authorities in both the US and UK have failed to hold BGC and Cantor Fitzgerald adequately accountable or to protect him from retaliation by his former employer for reporting wrongdoing.
BGC asserts it has robust policies protecting whistleblowers from retaliation and denies retaliating against Andriesz. The company states it has had no involvement with him since his departure other than responding to litigation he initiated.
BGC maintains that Andriesz's employment was terminated after he refused to follow medical advice, declined to perform essential job duties, rejected reasonable accommodation, and ultimately abandoned his role.
Speaking on behalf of Lutnick, the White House stated:
"The BBC's pathetic and desperate attempt to slander Secretary Lutnick will do nothing to change the fact that he has been the most consequential Commerce Secretary in modern history."
Epstein Files: Lutnick, the Royals and the British Whistleblower
A former trader reveals how he unearthed evidence that US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had failed to disclose a business relationship with the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Listen now on or on Tuesday 14 July at 20:00 on BBC Radio 4
