The FCA Reviews Its Own Conduct After a Whistleblower’s Death
Simon Andriesz, a 57-year-old British banker who said the Financial Conduct Authority put him through “absolute hell”, took his own life in Thailand on 23 September. The regulator had wrongly told him he did not qualify for whistleblower protection because his identity was known, and apologised. It has asked a newly appointed non-executive director to review its handling of his case.
Mr Andriesz, a former managing director at BGC Partners, had told the FBI in 2020 and 2021 that the American commerce secretary Howard Lutnick had undeclared business ties to Jeffrey Epstein, and said he had found an email chain in the Epstein files suggesting the two discussed a shared startup in 2018. Mr Lutnick says he had no personal or professional relationship with Epstein and is not accused of any wrongdoing. The British thread runs through Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor: Mr Andriesz said he uncovered evidence that Mr Lutnick had sought in 2013 to go into business with him and use his contacts to attract investment, in exchange for a £1 million loan. BGC says the venture did not proceed. His wider charge was institutional rather than personal — that the regulator “protects the institution and then exposes the whistleblower to extreme retaliation”. The review will be led by Lea Paterson, a former Bank of England director who joined the FCA board only recently, which is precisely the objection. John McDonnell, who chairs the all-party group on investment fraud, called the death a “profound and preventable tragedy” and said the regulator is being allowed to “mark its own homework”, demanding a genuinely independent evaluation or his group will run its own. Watch whether the FCA concedes one.