MPs seek external review of FCA whistleblower handling after Andriesz’s death

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services wants the Financial Conduct Authority to fund an independent, external assessment of how it treats whistleblowers. The call follows the death of Simon Andriesz, a former senior employee of brokerage BGC Partners. The FCA has instead asked Lea Paterson, an independent non-executive director who joined its board on 1 October, to review its interactions with him. Her remit is narrower than the group’s request for a third-party assessment of whistleblower handling generally. [2] [3] [7]

Andriesz’s family told the BBC that he took his own life in Thailand on 23 September and that there was no suggestion of foul play. He had raised concerns with regulators about what he believed were business links between Howard Lutnick and Jeffrey Epstein. Before his death, Andriesz said he felt “thoroughly let down” by the FCA and alleged retaliation by BGC and its lawyers. BGC denied retaliating against him. The FCA had told him there was insufficient evidence to conclude retaliation had occurred, but said it took regulatory action based on information he supplied. [1]

An earlier complaint record presents both a finding in the FCA’s favour and an acknowledged error. A 2023 complaints commissioner report, anonymised but subsequently linked to Andriesz, found that the FCA had considered the information and taken action. It did not uphold the complaint points it examined. The FCA separately acknowledged that it had wrongly told the complainant that revealing his identity had ended his statutory whistleblower protections. It said those protections were unaffected, and that it had corrected the error and apologised. [4] [5] [9] [2]