Simon Andriesz, a former managing director at BGC Partners who gave House investigators emails between Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Jeffrey Epstein, died in Thailand on 23 September aged 57. His family said he took his own life and that there was no suggestion of foul play. The Banker, a banking trade magazine, first reported on 2 October that he had died by suicide the previous week, citing Andy Agathangelou, founder of the Transparency Task Force, a campaign group Andriesz worked with. A representative confirmed his death on Andriesz's X account on 5 October.

Agathangelou wrote: "It is with great sadness that we share the news that Simon Andriesz, a valued member of our community, passed away last week."

No statement from Thai police had been published by 6 October. Andriesz had lived in Cornwall. The Commerce Department, the FBI and BGC did not respond to requests for comment.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Britain's financial regulator, has asked Lea Paterson, a former Bank of England director who has just joined its board, to review how it dealt with Andriesz. "We are very sorry to hear of Mr Andriesz's death. Our thoughts are with his family and friends," an FCA spokesperson said. The review is due to report around the turn of the year.

Andriesz sent the FCA evidence of what he regarded as retaliation against him by BGC and its lawyers, and evidence that cash from the pool of commission money set aside for brokers' bonuses had been "embezzled," which BGC denies. The FCA told him there was "insufficient evidence" to conclude there had been retaliation, a finding he believed made it harder to win his tribunal claim. The regulator said it had acted on his information and issued a supervision order, which Andriesz called a "slap on the wrist." It has acknowledged that an official's advice to him that "he had lost whistleblower protection because his identity had become known, was incorrect," and apologised.

Andriesz told an event led by MPs and campaigners in July that he felt "thoroughly let down" and had been put through "absolute hell" by the FCA. He told a Transparency Task Force meeting later that month that the regulator "pays lip service" to its rules. "It protects the institution and then exposes the whistleblower to extreme retaliation and devastation to their lives and families," he said.

John McDonnell, the Labour MP who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services, called the death a "profound and preventable tragedy." The group said it "raised deeply troubling questions about the way whistleblowers can be treated when they approach the FCA" and asked the FCA to pay for a "truly independent and non-conflicted organisation" to examine how it treats whistleblowers, saying the regulator had been allowed to "mark their own homework" in a 2021 to 2022 review. McDonnell said the group would gather evidence from whistleblowers itself if the FCA refused. The MPs have not called for an inquiry into the death or into Lutnick. More than $200,000 of Andriesz's $420,000 US whistleblower award went on medical bills, the Transparency Task Force said.

Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, wrote on X that Andriesz "uncovered 2018 emails linking Howard Lutnick to Jeffrey Epstein's Adfin investment and took them to House Oversight," and that "Lutnick later admitted to visiting the island but not the business dealings."

What Andriesz found

Andriesz searched the roughly 3.5 million pages the Justice Department released from its Epstein files in early 2026 for "HWL," Howard William Lutnick's initials, rather than his name. He found a 2018 exchange in which Epstein asked an account identified as Lutnick's: "what do you think the prospects for adfin are?" The reply read: "Producing revenue finally. This is their year. Next 12 months they need to become economically self-sufficient." He first flagged the emails in February 2026.

Adfin is a digital advertising company. Lutnick and Epstein signed contracts on 28 December 2012 to buy stakes in it through their own vehicles, Lutnick's CVAFH I and Epstein's Southern Trust Company, according to the released files. Correspondence about further fundraising, involving Cantor Ventures, continued into 2014.

Andriesz gave the 2018 exchange to the House Oversight Committee before Lutnick's closed-door deposition on 6 May 2026. Lutnick told the committee that to the "best of [his] recollection" he did not learn Epstein had invested in Adfin until the files were released, and called the presence of his Adfin documents in them "inexplicable and unsettling." Asked about the 2018 exchange, he said he had been marketing Adfin to advertisers and "would've been out talking to everybody" about it. "So it wouldn't surprise me that people knew about it," he said. He said he knew nothing of a 2013 email in which Epstein and David Mitchell, a former Adfin board member, discussed meeting him about the company. He told the committee he "had no personal or professional relationship with [Epstein], despite the proximity of our addresses." The Commerce Department called the whistleblower's allegations a "desperate partisan distraction" and said there was "no evidence of wrongdoing."

Andriesz also flagged emails showing that Lutnick's firms sought, in Andriesz's words, to "buy a prince": a 2013 proposal to go into business with Prince Andrew, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, using his contacts to attract investment in exchange for a £1 million loan and half of any fees from clients he brought in. An adviser to Mountbatten-Windsor forwarded the draft to Epstein, who objected to it. BGC said the joint venture did not go ahead, and Mountbatten-Windsor did not comment. The Commerce Department said none of the communications showed criminal behaviour by Lutnick.

Lutnick's account of Epstein

Lutnick co-chaired Donald Trump's transition team after the 2024 election and was confirmed as commerce secretary in February 2025. His family's fortune is valued at about $7.2 billion.

Lutnick said in October 2025 that a 2005 tour of Epstein's Manhattan townhouse next door was a "one and absolutely done" meeting, after which he and his wife cut ties. He called Epstein "gross" and said: "I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again." Lutnick bought 11 East 71st Street in 1998, a house Epstein had sold to a trust in 1996.

Emails in the January 2026 release show the two men arranging calls and drinks in 2011, and Epstein's staff inviting Lutnick, his wife and four children to lunch on Little St. James on 24 December 2012. Epstein's assistant later wrote: "it was nice seeing you." Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida to a state charge of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008.

Lutnick told the Senate Appropriations Committee in February 2026: "We had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour." He said he travelled with his wife, children and nannies on a family holiday, and said: "Over a 14-year period, I did not have any relationship with him. I barely had anything to do with that person." Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump "fully supports" him.

A photograph from 2012, released in January 2026, shows Lutnick with Epstein and three other men on Little St. James. The Justice Department removed it from its website and restored it on 27 February, within hours of the removal being made public. Natalie Baldassarre, a department spokesperson, said it had been in a batch of images "flagged for nudity" and pulled for review.

Massie said in February: "He should just resign. Prince Andrew lost his title for less than what we've seen [Howard Lutnick lie about]." Representative Robert Garcia, the committee's senior Democrat, said Lutnick "has been lying about his relationship with Epstein" and "must resign or be fired." All 21 Democrats on the Oversight Committee later signed a letter demanding his resignation. James Comer, the Republican chairman, called Lutnick "very transparent." No allegation of sexual misconduct by Lutnick has been made in the released files or in congressional proceedings.

Andriesz and BGC

Andriesz ran futures and options desks at BGC, a Cantor Fitzgerald affiliate that Lutnick chaired, from November 2014 until his dismissal on 31 January 2017. He raised concerns about accounting, pay and regulatory reporting in 2016 and refused to sign off documents he said contained false figures. He said the firm took money from brokers' commission pools to cover losses elsewhere. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission fined BGC Financial $3 million in November 2019 for supervisory and recordkeeping failures and later paid Andriesz a whistleblower award of about $420,000.

A FINRA arbitration panel awarded Andriesz $500,000 in compensatory damages against BGC Financial in June 2024. A UK employment tribunal struck out his claims against BGC Partners LP, Lutnick and another executive as out of time on 11 August 2026. BGC said investigations had found his allegations "categorically false," denied retaliating against him and said he "refused medical advice, declined essential duties, rejected reasonable accommodation and abandoned his role." BGC said he was a former employee with an "axe to grind."

Andriesz said in July that he was dismissed after he was taken to hospital with heart problems, and that the dispute left him with dissociative seizures and led him to check into a trauma centre. "It's in my DNA to fight for justice," he said. He opened an X account in August 2026 and wrote: "The personal consequences of whistleblowing, and the retaliation I say followed, have been devastating for my family and me." He posted nothing further.

Andriesz took allegations about Lutnick's undeclared dealings with Epstein to the FBI in October 2020 and was interviewed in 2020 and 2021. He said he met "no interest." An FBI record of his 2021 interview, released in the Epstein files, notes his allegation that Lutnick "made his money through Ponzi schemes and money laundering." No investigation followed, no charges have been brought and Lutnick denies wrongdoing.

Deaths around the Epstein case and other whistleblowers

Jeffrey Epstein died in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York on 10 August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. New York City's chief medical examiner ruled his death a suicide. The Justice Department's inspector general reported in June 2023 that prison staff had failed to carry out required checks on him, and a Justice Department and FBI memo of 7 July 2025 concluded that he died by suicide. Michael Baden, a pathologist hired by Epstein's brother Mark, disputed the ruling.

Jean-Luc Brunel, a French modelling agent and friend of Epstein, was found dead in his cell at La Santé prison in Paris on 19 February 2022 while held on charges of raping minors, which he denied. French authorities treated his death as suicide and closed an official inquiry in 2023. His lawyers asked the justice ministry in December 2023 for an inquiry into alleged judicial failings in his case.

Virginia Giuffre, Epstein's most prominent accuser, died by suicide at her farm north of Perth, Western Australia, in April 2025 aged 41, her family said. Western Australia Police did not treat the death as suspicious. Col Blanch, the state's police commissioner, said in June 2026 that officers' handling of a dispute between Giuffre and a former partner "will be subject to a review," and her family and 16 domestic violence experts have called for a coroner's inquest.

Daniel Siad, a French model scout whose name appears more than 1,000 times in the Epstein files, was found dead at his home in Bois-Colombes, near Paris, in July 2026. He faced five complaints, including rape and human trafficking, had denied the allegations and had not been charged. The Nanterre prosecutor's office said an autopsy "did not reveal an immediate cause of death at this stage," found no signs of recent violence and ordered toxicology tests.