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Simon Andriesz, a former managing director at a Wall Street firm run by Howard Lutnick, discovered an email chain from 2018 in which the current commerce secretary and Jeffrey Epstein discussed prospects for a startup business called Adfin in which both held stakes, according to the BBC. Andriesz shared his findings with members of the House Oversight Committee ahead of Lutnick’s appearance before the panel. The British whistleblower told the BBC he was disappointed that few seemed interested in the material he had provided.
A review of the Epstein files by the New York Times in February 2026 showed that Lutnick interacted with Epstein regularly over at least 13 years while the two lived as neighbors on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The records indicate the pair invested in the same privately held company, dealt with neighborhood and philanthropic issues, and socialized in New York and the Caribbean. Commerce Department representatives stated that Lutnick and his wife met Epstein in 2005 and had very limited interactions with him over the ensuing years.
Lutnick told the House Oversight Committee that he had only learned this year that Epstein was an investor in the firm and described his interactions with Epstein as meaningless and inconsequential, CBS News reported. Yet documents cited by multiple outlets including CBS News show the two arranged calls and planned to have drinks in 2011, with a family visit by the Lutnicks to Epstein’s Little St. James island occurring the following year. A photograph from the Epstein files places Lutnick on the island with Epstein in 2012.
Andriesz also identified material in the files showing that one of Lutnick’s firms, Cantor Fitzgerald, planned in 2013 to enter a business arrangement with Prince Andrew that involved a one million pound loan, the BBC reported. Epstein warned against the deal because of exclusivity clauses, according to the documents Andriesz located among more than three and a half million pages of Epstein-related records unsealed by the US government. The whistleblower’s own history with BGC Partners, where Lutnick served as chairman, included raising accounting concerns that resulted in a three million dollar penalty for the firm.
All 21 Democrats on the House Oversight Committee signed a letter demanding Lutnick’s resignation after his testimony, citing what they described as inconsistencies with the released files, according to the BBC. Lutnick has condemned Epstein’s conduct and maintained that he cut ties with the financier after a 2005 visit to his townhouse, a claim challenged by the timeline in the documents. The commerce secretary sold his shares in Cantor Fitzgerald upon taking office in 2025.
A CBS News review of the Epstein files placed their most recent documented business contact in 2014, years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Lutnick has voluntarily appeared before congressional panels to address questions about the relationship, with the White House continuing to support his position amid the bipartisan criticism that surfaced after the document releases. Andriesz, who appeared in the Epstein files through his earlier dispute with BGC Partners, said the FBI did not investigate the accusations he raised about Lutnick’s ties.
