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Banker who exposed Lutnick’s Epstein emails dies at 57; family says suicide
Simon Andriesz, a former employee of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, had given lawmakers a 2018 email chain that contradicted Lutnick’s account of when he cut ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
Simon Andriesz, a British former banker who uncovered emails showing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick remained in contact with Jeffrey Epstein years after he said he had cut ties, has died at 57. He died on Sept. 23, and his family has said his death was a suicide. There has been no official ruling.
News of his death was first reported by The Banker. Andy Agathangelou, founder of the Transparency Task Force, said: “It is with great sadness that we share the news that Simon Andriesz, a valued member of our community, passed away last week.”
The “HWL” emails
Andriesz worked at BGC Partners, the brokerage then led by Lutnick, until January 2017. Searching the Justice Department’s release of Epstein files for “HWL,” Lutnick’s initials, he found a 2018 email chain in which Lutnick and Epstein discussed Adfin, a digital advertising company in which both had invested. He shared the documents with members of the House Oversight Committee.
Lutnick has said he met Epstein in 2005 after moving next door to him and broke off contact after touring Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. The emails indicated the two were still in friendly contact in 2018, a decade after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from a minor. In February, Lutnick told the Senate Appropriations Committee that he and his family visited Epstein’s Caribbean island in 2012, saying, “I don’t recall why we did it.”
Years of complaints
Years before going to Congress, Andriesz told the FBI in interviews in 2020 and 2021 that Lutnick had undeclared business ties to Epstein; the bureau did not investigate. His unfair dismissal and whistleblowing claims against BGC were struck out by a U.K. employment tribunal in August. His case was featured in a BBC investigation in July.
“The personal consequences of whistleblowing, and the retaliation I say followed, have been devastating for my family and me,” Andriesz had said. There is no evidence linking his death to Lutnick, Epstein or his claims. The Commerce Department and the FBI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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