A British former trader, Simon Andriesz, has told the BBC how he uncovered evidence that his former employer, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, failed to disclose a business relationship with convicted pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Andriesz, a former managing director at Wall Street firm BGC Partners, discovered a 2018 email chain in which Lutnick and Epstein discussed the prospects of a startup called Adfin, in which both had invested.

He shared his findings with the influential House Oversight Committee ahead of Lutnick's appearance in May. Lutnick told the committee he only learned this year that Epstein was an investor in the firm. The Commerce Department said there was no evidence of wrongdoing.

Andriesz also found in the Epstein files that one of Lutnick's firms had planned in 2013 to go into business with then-Prince Andrew, involving a £1 million loan to exploit the prince's contacts. Andriesz described it as "to buy a prince."

Andriesz himself appeared in the Epstein files due to FBI interviews he gave after being fired from BGC in 2017. He had previously raised concerns about accounting irregularities, leading to a $3 million fine for BGC. BGC called his allegations "categorically false."

Lutnick claimed he only met Epstein once, 20 years ago, but a 2012 photo from Epstein's island contradicts this. Democrats on the committee have called for Lutnick's resignation, but the White House dismissed the allegations as a "pathetic and desperate attempt to slander" him.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk