He searched for HWL and found the emails Lutnick had tried to hide
In the quiet of a Cornish village, a former Wall Street trader named Simon Andriesz searched through millions of released documents and found something that powerful institutions had long left undisturbed: evidence that a sitting US Cabinet secretary had concealed business ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The discovery — emails, photographs, and financial arrangements spanning years — places Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the center of a widening question about accountability, disclosure, and the distance between a man's public testimony and his private dealings. As Democratic lawmakers call for his resignation and the White House dismisses the findings as partisan noise, the story reminds us that the pursuit of truth often falls to those who have already lost the most.
- A decade of personal ruin — lost career, depleted savings, deteriorating health — did not stop Andriesz from digging through 3.5 million Epstein documents and surfacing evidence that Congress had not seen.
- Emails from 2018 show Lutnick and Epstein discussing shared investment in a digital advertising firm called Adfin, directly contradicting Lutnick's sworn testimony that he only learned this year of Epstein's involvement.
- A photograph places Lutnick on Epstein's private Caribbean island in December 2012 — four years after Epstein's Florida conviction — further eroding his claim of only a single, distant acquaintance.
- All 21 Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee signed a letter demanding Lutnick's resignation, while the Commerce Department called the allegations a partisan distraction and denied any wrongdoing.
- The White House labeled the BBC's investigation 'pathetic and desperate,' signaling that the administration intends to absorb the political pressure rather than address the substance of the disclosures.
Simon Andriesz was combing through the released Epstein files when he found his own name in an FBI interview transcript — a jarring reminder of the decade-long legal battle that had already cost him his career, his savings, and his health. But he kept searching, and what he found next would reach far beyond his own story.
Andriesz, a former managing director at a Wall Street firm, had been fired in 2017 after raising concerns about accounting irregularities at BGC Partners, a brokerage within Howard Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald group. Regulators later ordered BGC to pay $3 million in penalties for supervision and record-keeping violations, though the firm denied his specific allegations. When Andriesz spoke to the FBI in 2020 and 2021, he flagged what he believed were undisclosed ties between Lutnick and Epstein. The FBI did not pursue it.
Knowing that Wall Street executives rarely use full names in correspondence, Andriesz searched the 3.5 million released documents not for 'Lutnick' but for 'HWL' — Howard William Lutnick's initials. He found email exchanges from 2018 in which Lutnick and Epstein discussed a digital advertising company called Adfin, in which both men had invested. Epstein asked about the company's prospects; Lutnick replied that it was beginning to generate revenue and needed to become self-sufficient within the year.
Andriesz brought his findings to the House Oversight Committee before Lutnick's scheduled appearance in May. Under questioning, Lutnick told the committee he had only learned this year that Epstein had been an investor in Adfin. Democrats accused him of lying under oath. All 21 Democratic members signed a letter demanding his resignation. The Commerce Department dismissed the allegations as a partisan distraction.
The documents revealed more. In 2013, Lutnick's firm had explored a £1 million loan arrangement with Prince Andrew that would have tied the royal's business exclusively to Cantor Fitzgerald — effectively monetizing his connections to sovereign institutions and wealthy individuals. Epstein himself had raised concerns about the exclusivity clause. The deal never closed, but discussions had continued for four months.
Lutnick had previously said he met Epstein only once, decades ago as Manhattan neighbors, and found his behavior repellent. A photograph in the Epstein files told a different story: Lutnick and Epstein together on Little St James, Epstein's private Caribbean island, in December 2012 — years after Epstein's Florida conviction for soliciting prostitution involving a minor.
Now 57 and living in a quiet village in Cornwall, Andriesz received a $420,000 whistleblower award from US regulators for his earlier disclosures. But he says the years of litigation have left him financially, professionally, and physically diminished, and that authorities on both sides of the Atlantic have failed to protect him or hold his former employers fully accountable. The White House, speaking on Lutnick's behalf, called the BBC's investigation 'pathetic and desperate' — a response that, to Andriesz, may feel like a familiar kind of silence.
Simon Andriesz was searching through millions of pages of released Epstein documents when he found his own name staring back at him from an FBI interview transcript. The discovery was jarring—a reminder of a decade-long legal battle that had already cost him his career, his savings, and his health. But as he kept digging through the 3.5 million documents, he found something else: evidence that Howard Lutnick, now the US Commerce Secretary, had failed to disclose significant business dealings with Jeffrey Epstein.
Andriesz, a former managing director at a Wall Street financial firm, had been fired in 2017 after raising concerns about accounting irregularities at BGC Partners, a brokerage owned by Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald group. The firm disputed his allegations, calling them "categorically false," but regulators later ordered BGC to pay $3 million in penalties for supervision and record-keeping violations. When Andriesz spoke to the FBI in 2020 and 2021, he mentioned what he believed were undisclosed ties between Lutnick and Epstein. The FBI did not pursue the matter.
Then came the Epstein files. Released by the US government over the past year, they contained millions of documents, emails, photos, and videos related to the financier's crimes. Andriesz knew that searching for "Lutnick" directly would likely yield nothing—Wall Street executives, he reasoned, would use initials in their correspondence. He searched for "HWL," Howard William Lutnick's initials, and found email exchanges from 2018 between Lutnick and Epstein discussing a digital advertising company called Adfin in which both men had invested. Epstein asked directly: "What do you think the prospects for adfin are?" Lutnick replied that the company was finally producing revenue and needed to become economically self-sufficient within the next year.
Andriesz shared his findings with members of the House Oversight Committee before Lutnick's scheduled appearance in May. When questioned by the committee, Lutnick stated that, to the best of his knowledge, he had only learned this year that Epstein had been an investor in Adfin. Democrats on the committee accused him of lying. All 21 Democratic members signed a letter demanding his resignation. The Commerce Department responded by calling the allegations "a desperate partisan distraction" and insisting there was "no evidence of wrongdoing."
The Epstein files also revealed another business scheme involving Lutnick. In 2013, his firm had discussed a deal with Prince Andrew—a £1 million loan that would have bound the prince's business to work exclusively with Cantor Fitzgerald, effectively allowing Lutnick to exploit the royal's connections to wealthy individuals and sovereign institutions. Epstein himself had warned against the arrangement, concerned about its exclusivity clause. The deal never materialized, but the documents showed that advisers to both Lutnick and Andrew had discussed it for four months.
Lutnick had previously claimed he had met Epstein only once, two decades earlier, when they were neighbors in Manhattan, and that he found Epstein's behavior "gross." But photographs in the Epstein files contradicted this account. One image showed Lutnick with Epstein on Little St James, the financier's Caribbean island, in December 2012—four years after Epstein had served prison time in Florida for soliciting prostitution, including with a minor.
Andriesz, now 57, lives in a quiet Cornish village far from Wall Street. He won a $420,000 whistleblower award from US regulators for his earlier disclosures about BGC, but he says the decade of litigation has devastated his finances, his career, and his health. He feels that authorities in both the US and UK have failed to hold his former employers accountable or to protect him from retaliation. BGC denies retaliating against him and says it has had no involvement with him since his departure except in response to litigation he initiated. The White House, speaking for Lutnick, dismissed the BBC's investigation as "pathetic and desperate," claiming it would not change the fact that Lutnick has been "the most consequential Commerce Secretary in modern history."
Notable Quotes
What do you think the prospects for adfin are?— Jeffrey Epstein, in 2018 email to Lutnick
Producing revenue finally. This is their year. Next 12 months they need to become economically self-sufficient.— Howard Lutnick's response to Epstein about Adfin
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
How did you know to search for initials instead of his full name?
I'd worked in that world long enough to understand how these men communicated. They didn't write "Howard Lutnick" in sensitive emails. They used shorthand. It's a small detail, but it's the difference between finding nothing and finding everything.
When you saw your own name in those files, what went through your mind?
Shock, mostly. And then a kind of grim recognition. I'd been fighting this battle alone for so long. Seeing my name there meant I wasn't crazy—the FBI had listened to me, even if they didn't act on what I said.
Did you expect Congress to care?
I hoped they would. I gave them the emails, the dates, the contradictions in his testimony. But hope and reality are different things. When nothing happened, when the Commerce Department just called it partisan distraction, I realized how little my evidence actually mattered in that arena.
What's the cost been for you personally?
A decade of my life. My career is essentially over. I've spent hundreds of thousands on lawyers. My health suffered. I won a whistleblower award, but money doesn't repair what's been broken. I'm living quietly now, trying to move on, but the damage is permanent.
Do you think Lutnick knew what Epstein was doing?
I don't know what he knew or when he knew it. What I know is that he had a business relationship with Epstein, discussed it in emails, and then claimed he didn't know about it. That's what the documents show. The rest is for others to determine.