Jeffrey Epstein, Howard Lutnick, and the disgraced former prince

**Tristan Redman** (0:00)
Back in February, the BBC's Andy Verity was at his desk combing through millions of newly released documents.

**Andy Verity** (0:08)
When the Epstein files came out, I, like others, was tasked with going through these files and I spotted something rather familiar when I searched for Lutnick.

**Tristan Redman** (0:20)
Andy was looking for any files that referenced the US Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick.

**Andy Verity** (0:26)
When I searched for Lutnick, more than 250 documents come up. He's in the files more than 250 times.
And going through all of those, I came across one which was a record of an interview that was given to the FBI. And I looked at the allegations and they sounded strangely familiar. I've been hearing them for years.

**Tristan Redman** (0:45)
He spotted the name of one of his sources.

**Andy Verity** (0:47)
I realised that actually what I've been hearing from the whistleblower had real substance to it. Then, we found out something more, involving not just Lutnick, not just Epstein, but also our very own Andrew Mountbatten-Winter.

**Tristan Redman** (1:07)
In an exclusive BBC investigation, a whistleblower gives his first interview revealing how he unearthed evidence suggesting that Howard Lutnick failed to disclose a business relationship with dead paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redman in London. And today on The Global Story, Howard Lutnick, Jeffrey Epstein and the disgraced former prince.
Andy Verity, Financial Investigations Correspondent with the BBC. Great to have you back on the show.

**Andy Verity** (1:47)
Good to be here.

**Tristan Redman** (1:48)
How did you hear about this story?

**Andy Verity** (1:51)
Well, it's one of those stories where you've been thinking of doing it for years and years, but it's not quite there. So a man named Simon Andriesz, who's at the centre of our story, he's a British whistleblower.
We've just walked down a narrow path over a dune to be confronted by a spectacular sight here in Morgan Porth on the north coast of Cornwall, the Atlantic. So, why did you come to Cornwall, Sam?

**Simon Andriesz** (2:23)
Andy, well, this is a place my wife and I used to come down to.

**Andy Verity** (2:27)
He now lives in Cornwall?

**Tristan Redman** (2:29)
In South West England.

**Andy Verity** (2:30)
In South West England.

**Simon Andriesz** (2:31)
I'm a big ocean swimmer. Yeah, I do a lot of ocean swimming.
It's been great for the mental health.

**Andy Verity** (2:38)
Where he's recuperating because of a traumatic 10 years, trying to expose malpractice and misconduct at his former employer.

**Simon Andriesz** (2:47)
I would have flashbacks to incidents that had happened in the past called dissociative seizures, where I was developing like a head movement, like your head shaking.

**Andy Verity** (2:57)
And what have the doctors told you about what's caused that?

**Simon Andriesz** (3:00)
That's due to the intense ordeal I've been through. I would say the retaliation that I've endured for 10 years.

**Andy Verity** (3:09)
Retaliation for what?

**Simon Andriesz** (3:10)
For my whistleblower.

**Andy Verity** (3:12)
I've been talking to him for five years. He was introduced to me by a colleague in 2021 and told me things he knew about Howard Lutnick and Jeffrey Epstein and the Royals. Of course, I was interested, but I also didn't feel it was quite there in terms of the levels of proof we needed in order to show any links. But this year with the Epstein files, all that changed.
I went back to him. I said, did you know you're in the Epstein files? It turns out that an interview he gave to the FBI in 2020 and 21, where he was making some of these allegations, was also in the Epstein files and his name had been unredacted. He was there against his wishes. So I thought, well, if his name is out there anyway now, no point staying anonymous and convinced him to give us an interview.

**Tristan Redman** (3:59)
So you went to meet this whistleblower, Simon Andriesz. What can you tell us about him?

**Andy Verity** (4:04)
Well, he's 57 years old. He grew up in a working class house with not much money. But then in the late 80s, he started going to the city of London, the financial district, and he did well. He rose in his career. He had a very successful, lucrative career where he was first at the Japanese bank, Nomura, and then went on to BGC Partners, which is owned or was owned by President Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick. But he found himself when he moved from the bank to this firm of brokers owned and controlled by Howard Lutnick, in a very different working atmosphere.
He described to me how when someone did their first trade, arranged their first trade, brokers would bang their phones. They would bang their phones until they ran around the trading floor and then they'd be doused with water. And it's a very macho atmosphere as well on this trading floor, according to him. He also starts to hear about what he calls accounting. The firm would deny it.