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British lawmakers are calling for an independent investigation into how the country's financial regulator treated a whistleblower who died last month in Thailand, saying his case raises serious questions about protections for people who report wrongdoing in the financial sector.
Simon Andriesz, a former senior employee at the international brokerage firm BGC Partners, died on 23 September. His family has said he took his own life and there is no suggestion of foul play. He was a key figure in exposing evidence of business links between US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The calls for scrutiny come from a group of MPs associated with the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services. They argue that the circumstances surrounding Andriesz's dealings with the Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, must be examined by an independent party, funded by the regulator itself.
John McDonnell, the Labour backbench MP who chairs the group, described Andriesz's death as a "profound and preventable tragedy." He said whistleblowers serve as an essential component of the financial regulatory system, and warned that the system's integrity would be at risk if people lost faith that they would be treated properly, protected appropriately and listened to seriously.
At the heart of the case is evidence Andriesz uncovered concerning Lutnick, who founded and ran BGC Partners before being appointed to the US cabinet by President Donald Trump. Andriesz alleged that Lutnick had sought in 2013 to "buy a prince," offering to enter a business venture with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and use the former prince's contacts to draw in investments, in exchange for a £1m loan. BGC has told the BBC that the proposed joint venture never went ahead.
Andriesz also provided evidence to the FCA supporting allegations of misconduct at Lutnick's former firm. Among the claims was an accusation that cash from a commission pool set aside to pay brokers' bonuses had been "embezzled" for improper purposes. The firm has denied that allegation.
The documents Andriesz gathered cast doubt on Lutnick's public statements about the extent of his associations with Epstein, the disgraced financier who was convicted of sex offences. The material he unearthed has been the subject of BBC reporting and a BBC Sounds podcast, "Epstein Files: Lutnick, the Royals and the British Whistleblower."
Weeks before his death, Andriesz spoke at a public event organised by MPs, whistleblowers and campaigners pressing for fairer regulation. He said he felt "thoroughly let down" by the FCA and had been put through "absolute hell" after sending the regulator evidence of what he regarded as whistleblower retaliation by BGC and its lawyers.
The FCA had previously informed Andriesz that there was "insufficient evidence" to conclude retaliation had occurred. He believed that conclusion made it harder for him to win a claim against BGC at an employment tribunal.
BGC has previously told the BBC that it maintains strong policies to protect whistleblowers and has denied retaliating against Andriesz. The FCA has also said it acted on his allegations and pointed to a supervision order it issued based on the information he supplied.
From Andriesz's perspective, however, that supervisory action amounted to little more than a regulatory "slap on the wrist," and he argued it undermined his ability to pursue a tribunal claim for whistleblower retaliation against BGC.
In July, Andriesz told MPs and campaigners 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. Later that month, he addressed a meeting of the Transparency Task Force, a campaign group, telling attendees that the FCA was not meeting its obligations to the public and to whistleblowers and merely "pays lip service" to rules and regulations. He said the regulator "protects the institution and then exposes the whistleblower to extreme retaliation and devastation to their lives and families."
In response to the concerns, the FCA has said it is appointing a new non-executive director to its board, former Bank of England director Lea Paterson, to carry out a review into Andriesz's treatment and how the regulator handled his whistleblower allegations. An FCA spokesperson said the regulator was "very sorry" to hear of his death and that its thoughts were with his family and friends.
The demands from MPs add to pressure on the FCA over its whistleblower procedures, at a time when the effectiveness of financial watchdogs is already under close scrutiny. The lawmakers argue that an independent evaluation, paid for by the regulator, is necessary to establish whether Andriesz was failed by the very body meant to protect those who expose misconduct.
The case also highlights the difficult position of whistleblowers who raise allegations against powerful figures and the firms they once worked for. Andriesz's account suggests that even when evidence is supplied to regulators, the resulting action may be viewed by the whistleblower as inadequate, leaving them exposed to professional and personal consequences.
The death of the former trader, and the questions now being raised in Westminster, place both the FCA's handling of his case and the wider treatment of whistleblowers under renewed examination, with MPs warning that public confidence in the regulatory system may hinge on the answers that emerge.
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