The Narativ | Know Sooner
Sunday, October 4, 2026
A former employee of Howard Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC who called in a tip to the FBI connecting Howard Lutnick to Jeffrey Epstein has died at 57. Simon Andriesz, a managing director at BGC, Lutnick's brokerage, went to the FBI in 2020 and again in 2021. He alleged Lutnick had business ties to Epstein he had never declared; the FBI did not investigate, the BBC reported. In January 2025 an FBI analyst vetting Lutnick for the Cabinet found him in two case files, money laundering and the Epstein investigation itself. Nineteen days later the Senate confirmed him Commerce Secretary, 51–45. Narativ published the FBI's own interview reports, the 302s, in February. Andriesz died by suicide, The Banker reported Friday. He is the fifth person tied to the Deutsche Bank and Lutnick money stories to die since 2014; the record ties two of the five to Epstein. The FBI opened nothing in 2020, nothing in 2021, nothing in 2025. Lutnick still runs Commerce.
Brazilians vote today with the American embassy shut. On the eve of the vote the State Department suspended services at its embassy and every consulate over a threat Brazil's police could not find, and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth talked of moving US forces into "a different posture in the Western Hemisphere." Lula, 80, wants a fourth term and has accused Trump of interfering for Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, who has promised to join Trump's anti-cartel campaign. No majority means a runoff on 25 October. Brazil counts tonight; the State Department has not said when it reopens.
Justice Samuel Alito told two interviewers in one weekend that the Court faces "a concerted effort to intimidate the court and justices on the court" and that "somebody at my age has to think about every term." He named no one, though the Fox anchor had just asked about Trump, who told TIME he regretted three of his appointments. The term opens Monday. When Alito decides again next year he will know who holds the Senate.
Trump put his spy chief in charge of coordinating the government's AI work, five days after the AI chiefs pledged to police themselves. Jay Clayton chairs a "Super Intelligence Force" that "will report to the President of the United States (ME!), and the Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles." Beside him: Andrew Ferguson, whose FTC is investigating two of the signers.
Trump's peace envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, helped negotiate America's stake in the sale of sanctioned Lukoil's foreign assets, to buyers tied to them. The Times found no sign the envoys profit. They made sure their government would.
This weekend the referees joined the game. The FBI took a whistleblower's tip on Howard Lutnick and opened nothing; he runs Commerce. The regulator investigating the AI companies now sits on the panel Trump built to deal with them. The envoys sent to end a war sat at the table where Russia's oil is being sold. A justice says someone is leaning on the Court and will not say who. In Brazil the American embassy suspended services the day before the vote. Brazilians count tonight. The Court sits tomorrow. The FBI has still not opened a file.
Friday's FiveStack: Trump's palace and America's pain, with jobs stalling, Iran escalating, Tillis breaking ranks and a reckoning at Cornell.
https://www.narativ.org/p/fivestack-top-5-breaking-news-october
The chapter that put Lutnick and Epstein in the same room in 2008, The Greatest Heist, Book 2, Chapter 9, "The Bomb":
https://www.narativ.org/p/the-greatest-heist-book-2-chapter-1c9
