Simon Andriesz spent years trying to make powerful people answer questions they would rather not have been asked. He reported suspected wrongdoing inside the financial business where he had worked. He spoke to the FBI. He pursued regulators, took his former employer into arbitration and searched the released Epstein files for evidence others had missed.
On September 23, the 57-year-old British former banker died in Thailand. His death has been reported as a suicide, and his family has said there is no suggestion of foul play. He leaves behind a dispute that stretches from a Wall Street brokerage to British financial regulation and the office of the United States commerce secretary.
One of Andriesz’s most consequential discoveries required only three letters. While others searched the Epstein files for Howard Lutnick’s surname, he searched for “HWL,” the initials he knew executives used in correspondence. Among the results was a business discussion between Lutnick and Jeffrey Epstein in 2018.
That exchange was difficult to reconcile with the story Lutnick had told the public. He had portrayed himself as the neighbor who immediately recognized something repellent about Epstein and kept away. The files instead documented contact continuing long afterward.
Andriesz’s death has now brought renewed attention to two connected histories. One concerns the dealings a Cabinet secretary minimized. The other concerns what happened to a former employee who kept challenging the institutions around him.