MPs demand investigation after UK trader who exposed links between US commerce secretary and Epstein dies

MPs have called for investigation into the UK’s financial watchdog over their treatment of Jeffrey Epstein whistlebower Simon Andriesz following his death.

Mr Andriesz died after revealing evidence of links between US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Lutnick was forced to testify before the House Oversight Committee in the US regarding his past interactions Epstein, after Mr Andriesz exposed his ties after having been an employee of BGC Partners, the financial firm previously run by Lutnick.

MPs have now raised “deeply troubling questions” about Mr Andriesz’s experience with the Financial Conduct Authority after raising his concerns with the watchdog.

Mr Andriesz previously claimed that the FCA “took no effective action to protect” him, despite warning the authority that “retaliation was escalating” and that he and his family were “in crisis”.

“The consequences have devastated my career, health, finances and family,” he said. “A regulator that depends on whistleblowers cannot abandon them after they speak up.”

The FCA has since launched a review into how it handled Mr Andriesz claims, but MPs on the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on investment fraud and fairer financial services have raised concerns that the watchdog is “marking its own homework”.

John McDonnell, chair of the MPs’ group and Labour MP for Hayes & Harlington, told The Times that Mr Andriesz’s death is a “profound and preventable tragedy”.

“Simon believed he had done what society asks of responsible citizens and professionals: he spoke up when he believed he had encountered serious wrongdoing,” he said. “He then spent years asking the regulator to listen to his concerns and help protect him and his family from what he believed was retaliation.”

He told The Guardian the APPG will consider conducting its own investigation into the FCA if it “refuses to respond positively”.

“It is vital that this time a truly independent and non-conflicted organisation carries out the work needed,” he said. “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.”

An FCA spokesperson said: “We are very sorry to hear of Mr Andriesz’s death. Our thoughts are with his family and friends. Since expressing our condolences, we’d 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.”

Mr Lutnick was forced to testify in front of congressional investigators earlier this year over his ties to to Epstein.

In his deposition to the House Oversight committee, he said he could not explain why he and his family decided to have lunch with Epstein on his private Caribbean island, Little St. James, in December 2012, four years after Epstein’s plea deal over charges for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

“I don’t remember why we went,” he told the panel, according to a transcript of the interview. “I don’t remember him registering as a sex offender. And if my next door neighbor was registered as a sex offender and I knew it, I would remember that.”