{"id":793566,"date":"2026-10-06T09:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T09:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793566\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T09:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T09:26:17","slug":"uk-regulator-fca-to-investigate-how-it-handled-epstein-whistleblower-who-took-his-own-life-financial-conduct-authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793566\/","title":{"rendered":"UK regulator FCA to investigate how it handled Epstein whistleblower who took his own life | Financial Conduct Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

A top UK regulator has launched an investigation into how it handled a whistleblower \u2013 who highlighted alleged ties between the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> and the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick \u2013 after he took his own life.<\/p>\n

The British banker Simon Andriesz died late last month aged 57, the campaign group Transparency Task Force, of which he was a member, confirmed over the weekend.<\/p>\n

Andriesz had formerly worked as a managing director at BGC Group, the financial brokerage where Lutnick had been chief executive. He had accused the Financial Conduct Authority<\/a> (FCA) of failing to hold his former employer to account for alleged wrongdoing, and had been wrongly told he did not qualify for whistleblower protection.<\/p>\n

The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick. Photograph: Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The banker had spent years raising concerns about his former employer: first in regards to accounting irregularities \u2013 which he raised internally at BGC in 2016, a year before he was sacked \u2013 and then in 2020-21, when he reportedly told the FBI that Lutnick had undeclared business ties with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

Lutnick has since said he had no \u201cpersonal or professional relationship\u201d<\/a> with Epstein. He was named Donald Trump\u2019s commerce secretary<\/a> in late 2024.<\/p>\n

Andriesz, who had been living in Cornwall, later unearthed an email chain in the Epstein files<\/a> that suggested Lutnick and Epstein had discussed the prospects of a startup business they were both involved in, in 2018. Epstein died in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

However, Andriesz told the BBC\u2019s File on 4 Investigates this summer that authorities in the US and UK had failed to hold BGC and its parent company, Cantor Fitzgerald, properly to account, or protect him from potential retaliation. He also later accused the FCA of mistreating whistleblowers, and raised concerns about the toll that whistleblowing had taken on his family, career and health.<\/p>\n

The FCA had also given Andriesz misleading information, saying he would not qualify for whistleblower protection because his identity had become known. The regulator apologised to him and said that further guidance and training would be provided to its whistleblowing team.<\/p>\n

The FCA confirmed it had now tasked a new board member to investigate how staff handled Andriesz\u2019s concerns. \u201cWe are very sorry to hear of Mr Andriesz\u2019s death,\u201d an FCA spokesperson said. \u201cOur thoughts are with his family and friends. Since expressing our condolences, we\u2019d asked Lea Paterson, who has just joined our board as a non-executive director, to review how we interacted with Mr Andriesz to learn any lessons for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on investment fraud and fairer financial services is concerned that the FCA is being allowed to \u201cmark its own homework\u201d and called on the regulator to pay an independent party to \u201cforensically and objectively evaluate its handling of whistleblowers\u201d.<\/p>\n

The APPG\u2019s chair, the Labour MP John McDonnell, said: \u201cIt is vital that this time a truly independent and non-conflicted organisation carries out the work needed. If the FCA refuses to respond positively, the APPG will consider all alternatives, including conducting its own call for evidence from whistleblowers who have interacted with the regulator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lutnick has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and has previously said: \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

A BGC spokesperson said: \u201cBGC has long disputed Mr Andriesz\u2019s allegations but does not intend to relitigate these matters at this sad time. BGC is sorry to hear this tragic news and expresses our condolences to Mr Andriesz\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans<\/a> can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline<\/a> on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org<\/a>, or text HOME<\/a> to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline<\/a> is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A top UK regulator has launched an investigation into how it handled a whistleblower \u2013 who highlighted alleged…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-793566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}