British parliamentarians are calling for an independent investigation into how the country's financial regulator treats whistleblowers, following the death of a former City trader who unearthed evidence linking US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Simon Andriesz, who had worked as a senior employee at the international brokerage BGC Partners, died in Thailand last month. His family has said he took his own life on 23 September and that there is no indication of foul play. The circumstances of his death, however, have intensified scrutiny of the pressure he described facing after he reported serious concerns about his former employer and its founder.
At the heart of the case is evidence Andriesz assembled earlier this year, which he shared with the Financial Conduct Authority, the FBI and other watchdogs. That material suggested business links between Epstein and Lutnick, who founded and ran BGC Partners before being appointed to the US cabinet by President Donald Trump. According to the source account, the evidence cast doubt on Lutnick's public statements about the nature of his associations with Epstein.
One strand of Andriesz's findings concerned a proposed deal in 2013. He said Lutnick had sought to "buy a prince" by offering to enter into business with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, using the former prince's contacts to draw in investment in return for a £1m loan. BGC has told the BBC that the proposed joint venture never went ahead.
Andriesz also passed evidence to the FCA supporting allegations of misconduct at the firm, including a claim that money held in a commission pool earmarked for brokers' bonuses had been "embezzled" for improper purposes. BGC has denied that allegation.
The disclosure of these claims forms part of a wider body of reporting on the Epstein files, Lutnick, the Royal Family and the role played by the British whistleblower who uncovered the material. A programme on BBC Sounds, "Epstein Files: Lutnick, the Royals and the British Whistleblower," details how the former trader pieced together the evidence.
Weeks before his death, Andriesz addressed a public event organised by MPs, whistleblowers and campaigners pressing for fairer regulation. He told those present that he felt "thoroughly let down" and had been put through "absolute hell" by the FCA, to which he had submitted evidence of what he regarded as retaliation by BGC and its lawyers.
The regulator had previously informed him that there was "insufficient evidence" to conclude retaliation had occurred. Andriesz believed that conclusion damaged his prospects of succeeding in a claim against BGC at an employment tribunal, because it undercut the factual foundation on which such a case would rest.
BGC has previously stated to the BBC that it maintains strong policies to protect whistleblowers and has denied retaliating against Andriesz.
John McDonnell, the Labour backbench MP who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services, described Andriesz's death as a "profound and preventable tragedy." He argued that whistleblowers are "an essential part of the financial regulatory system" and cautioned that the integrity of that system would be undermined if people stopped believing they would be "treated properly, protected appropriately and listened to seriously."
The cross-party group of MPs has now asked the FCA to fund an independent party to evaluate how it handles whistleblowers. The lawmakers say the case raises "deeply troubling questions" about the treatment of individuals who approach the regulator with concerns about wrongdoing and about the retaliation they may subsequently face.
The source account indicates that Andriesz had told MPs and campaigners in July that the FCA had been fully aware of other serious allegations he had raised as far back as 2018, and he accused the regulator of failing to act on them. The FCA responded at the time by saying it had taken action on his allegations, pointing to a supervision order it had issued on the basis of the information he supplied. In Andriesz's assessment, that amounted to little more than a regulatory "slap on the wrist" and made it harder for him to pursue a whistleblower retaliation claim against BGC at tribunal.
Later that month, he told a meeting of the campaign group the Transparency Task Force that the FCA was not meeting its obligations to the public or to whistleblowers and was merely paying "lip service" to the rules and regulations. In his words, the regulator "protects the institution and then exposes the whistleblower to extreme retaliation and devastation to their lives and families."
In response to the case, the FCA has said it is appointing a new non-executive director to its board, former Bank of England director Lea Paterson, to conduct a review into Andriesz's treatment and into how the regulator handled his whistleblower allegations. An FCA spokesperson said: "We are very sorry to hear of Mr Andriesz's death. Our thoughts are with his family and friends."
The appointment of an internal reviewer, however, may not satisfy MPs who have explicitly requested that an independent party carry out the assessment. Their demand reflects longstanding concerns among campaigners that regulators are poorly equipped, or unwilling, to scrutinise their own conduct when whistleblowers complain about the treatment they receive.
The case also carries significant political weight on both sides of the Atlantic. Lutnick's position as US commerce secretary means questions about his past business associations, and about whether those associations were properly disclosed, now intersect with a UK regulatory inquiry. The evidence Andriesz gathered was intended, at least in part, to test the accuracy of Lutnick's public account of his contacts with Epstein.
For campaigners, the broader lesson is that whistleblowers who expose misconduct at powerful institutions can find themselves isolated, discredited and financially exposed, even when the information they provide leads to regulatory action. Andriesz's own account described a process in which the regulator's findings were used against him rather than in his favour.
The MPs' intervention signals that the affair is unlikely to end with the FCA's internal review. Their demand for independent evaluation, combined with the public testimony Andriesz gave before his death, is likely to sustain pressure on the regulator to explain how it assessed his evidence, why it reached the conclusions it did, and what safeguards exist for others who follow the same path.
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