BGC Group

BGC Group, Inc. is an interdealer and wholesale broker and financial-technology company, listed on Nasdaq under the symbol BGC, that became the public holding company for the former BGC Partners, Inc. on July 1, 2023. BGC Partners was itself the 2008 combination of eSpeed with the interdealer brokerage assets of Cantor Fitzgerald, which has controlled the company throughout.¹² Its subsidiaries BGC Financial, L.P. and GFI Securities, LLC were the respondents in two sets of 2019 orders of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the company's former employee Simon Andriesz made a 2020 complaint to the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning Howard Lutnick, BGC and Cantor.³⁴⁵

From eSpeed to BGC Partners

BGC's business originated in Cantor's wholesale intermediary brokerage operations, started in 1972. In 1996 Cantor launched eSpeed, a fully electronic marketplace for government bonds. eSpeed completed an initial public offering on December 10, 1999, on NASDAQ, and remained one of Cantor's controlled subsidiaries; Cantor continued to operate its voice and hybrid interdealer brokerage separately. After the September 11 attacks, BGC states, and "the loss of the majority of our U.S.-based employees, our voice financial brokerage business operated primarily in Europe." The employees killed that day are covered at Cantor Fitzgerald.⁶⁷

In April 2008, BGC and certain other Cantor assets merged with and into eSpeed, and the combined company began operating as BGC Partners, Inc. A License Agreement dated April 1, 2008 between BGC Partners and Cantor and the BGC Holdings Participation Plan were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as exhibits to a Form 8-K on April 7, 2008. In June 2013 the company sold assets of its U.S. Treasury benchmark business, and the name "eSpeed," to Nasdaq.²⁶

Acquisitions, Newmark and the Cantor Relationship

GFI Group Inc. was acquired by a wholly owned subsidiary of BGC pursuant to a merger agreement completed on January 12, 2016, "after BGC's acquisition of Jersey Partners, Inc., GFI's largest shareholder."⁶ In November 2018 BGC acquired Poten & Partners, a ship brokerage and consultancy specializing in liquefied natural gas, tanker and liquefied petroleum gas markets.⁶

The company's real estate services business was transferred to Newmark Group, Inc. on December 13, 2017, and Newmark completed an initial public offering of 23 million Class A shares in December 2017. On November 30, 2018 BGC distributed its Newmark shares to its stockholders in a spin-off, with Newmark Class A shares going to BGC Class A holders and Newmark Class B shares to the holders of BGC Class B stock, Cantor and another entity controlled by Lutnick.⁶ The transaction by which BGC bought Berkeley Point from Cantor Commercial Real Estate for $875 million and committed $100 million for a 27 percent interest in Real Estate, L.P. was challenged in a derivative complaint filed on October 5, 2018 by the Roofers Local 149 Pension Fund in the Delaware Court of Chancery against BGC's directors, Lutnick, CFGM and Cantor; on September 30, 2019 the court denied the defendants' motions to dismiss on demand grounds without findings on the merits.⁶

Each BGC Class B share carries ten votes. At December 31, 2019, Cantor and CFGM held all 45,884,380 outstanding shares of BGC Class B stock, approximately 59.8 percent of the total voting power.⁶ BGC's related-party dealings with Cantor are subject to the prior approval of its Audit Committee. They include a credit agreement of March 19, 2018 permitting each party to borrow up to $250.0 million, which BGC's 2019 report describes as amended on August 6, 2018 to increase the facility to $400.0 million and its 2025 report as further amended on March 8, 2024 to increase the facility to $400.0 million; a March 2018 sales agreement under which BGC pays Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. (CF&Co) 2 percent of the gross proceeds from sales of BGC Class A shares; and Cantor's unlimited right to use BGC market data internally without cost.⁶¹

Fenics and FMX

BGC's technology businesses operate under the Fenics name, which the company describes as its group of electronic brands covering fully electronic brokerage, market data, connectivity and post-trade services, and which includes the FMX platforms and Lucera. On November 3, 2021 BGC announced FMX, combining Fenics' U.S. Treasury and foreign exchange businesses with a planned U.S. interest-rate futures exchange. The CFTC approved FMX to operate an exchange for U.S. Treasury and SOFR futures on January 22, 2024. On April 25, 2024 BGC announced that Bank of America, Barclays, Citi, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Jump Trading Group, Morgan Stanley, Tower Research Capital and Wells Fargo had become minority equity owners of FMX, investing $171.7 million for 25.75 percent at a post-money equity valuation of $666.7 million. FMX Futures Exchange launched SOFR futures on September 23, 2024 and Treasury futures on May 18, 2025.¹

The 2023 Corporate Conversion

Under a Corporate Conversion Agreement dated November 15, 2022, BGC Partners and BGC Holdings became wholly owned subsidiaries of BGC Group effective at 12:02 a.m. on July 1, 2023, replacing the "Up-C" structure with a full C-corporation. Each BGC Partners Class A and Class B share converted into one BGC Group share of the same class, and 64.0 million Cantor units in BGC Holdings were converted into BGC Group Class B shares. BGC Group assumed the BGC Credit Agreement with Cantor on October 6, 2023.¹

Leadership Change and the Lutnick Divestiture

Howard Lutnick, BGC's chief executive officer and chairman since 1999, was confirmed by the United States Senate as Secretary of Commerce on February 18, 2025, and stepped down that day. The board appointed John Abularrage, JP Aubin and Sean Windeatt co-chief executive officers, appointed Brandon Lutnick to the board, and named Stephen Merkel, the company's chief legal officer, to the board and as chairman. On May 19, 2025 BGC announced the repurchase of 16,452,850 Class A shares from Lutnick at $9.2082 per share, an aggregate of $151,501,133, "in furtherance of Mr. Lutnick's U.S. government ethics agreement." On October 6, 2025 Lutnick completed the divestiture of his holdings in BGC, Cantor and CFGM, selling the voting shares of CFGM to trusts controlled by Brandon Lutnick, who as of February 27, 2026 beneficially owned 2.0 million Class A and 109.4 million Class B shares, "collectively representing 75.1% of the total voting power."¹⁸

The September 2019 CFTC Orders (Release 8035-19)

On October 2, 2019 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced orders entered on September 30, 2019 against two interdealer brokers, BGC Financial, LP and GFI Securities, LLC, ordering BGC to pay a civil monetary penalty of $15 million and GFI $10 million, strengthen internal controls, appoint a monitor, and cease and desist. The orders found that brokers on their respective emerging markets foreign exchange options desks, "EFX options," made false representations that bids and offers were executable and that trades had occurred.³

The BGC order describes the Respondent as "a Delaware limited partnership headquartered in New York, New York, which provides voice and electronic brokerage services," registered as a futures commission merchant since 2009 and previously from 1994 to 2006. It states the relevant period as from at least January 2014 to at least December 2015, and finds that brokers on the desk posted bids and offers when "no trading institution had bid or offered the option at that level," a practice the brokers called "flying" prices, and "flew" hundreds of thousands of bids and offers; and that brokers communicated that trades had occurred when none had, called "printing." In a chat on or about January 27, 2014 a junior broker asked a colleague, "is this a printo?" and was told that it was. The order recites that when a flown bid or offer was hit or lifted the screen flashed, indicating to all users that a trade had occurred. The Commission found that the brokers intended "to create an illusion of greater liquidity and, at times, tighter spreads" and noted that BGC itself did not act as counterparty to the options transactions. It credited the Respondent's cooperation and remediation as reflected "in the form of a reduced civil monetary penalty."⁹

The GFI order, against GFI Securities LLC, a limited liability company headquartered in New York, New York, registered as an introducing broker since January 2014 (previously as an introducing broker from September 1998 to August 2013 and as a futures commission merchant from August 2013 to January 2014), states a relevant period of at least July 2013 to at least December 2015 and makes the same findings of "flying" and "printing" for its own EFX options desk, with a penalty of $10,000,000.¹⁰ The release states that the CFTC had the assistance of the Office of the Attorney General for the State of New York, which announced criminal non-prosecution agreements with BGC and GFI assessing monetary penalties of $7.5 million and $5 million, with remediation and a monitor, and that the CFTC penalties "will be offset by monies paid pursuant to these agreements." BGC's annual report for 2019 states that the company paid an aggregate of $25.0 million on October 9, 2019 and agreed to a monitor for two years, and describes the settling subsidiaries as BGC Financial L.P. and GFI Group Inc.⁶³

The November 2019 CFTC Order (Release 8083-19)

On November 22, 2019 the CFTC announced an order against BGC Financial, L.P., "a futures industry voice broker and registered futures commission merchant (FCM)," imposing a $3 million civil monetary penalty and undertakings including remediation and an outside consultant. The order found that from at least 2014 to March 2019 BGC failed to establish an adequate supervisory system with respect to its traditional and block trading futures brokerage businesses, including "audit trail" procedures and the use of personal cell phones by brokers for firm business contrary to its FCM Manual. It found that BGC lost all voice recordings from February 5, 2016 through the end of May 2016 for thousands of block trades, and that on multiple occasions failed to capture verbal communications for periods of up to four months; that BGC took more than two months to produce audit trail data for 100 random block trades requested by the Division of Enforcement; that its 2015 and 2016 Chief Compliance Officer reports did not adequately disclose voice-capture noncompliance; and that it failed to notify the CFTC of numerous formal investigations. The order recites that BGC "entered into at least eight settlements with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority" and settled matters with CME Group, ICE Futures U.S. and Nodal Exchange without notice to the Commission, and that BGC did not notify the CFTC of an SEC investigation, formal since at least early 2014 and resolved by a $1.25 million settlement for willful books and records violations, until after the SEC order of July 17, 2018. It also found that BGC filed notice of its 2017 change in chief executive officer "over nine months late." The CFTC thanked the National Futures Association for its assistance.⁴¹¹

Simon Andriesz

The BBC reported on July 14, 2026 that Simon Andriesz, 57, "previously a managing director at a Wall Street firm," had been employed by BGC Partners, "part of Lutnick's Cantor Fitzgerald group." According to the BBC, Andriesz raised concerns internally in 2016 about accounting irregularities, was dismissed in 2017, and later spoke to the FBI. The BBC wrote that "some of his allegations later led to BGC being ordered to pay a $3m (£2.24m) penalty by the US derivatives regulator for 'numerous supervision, reporting, and record-keeping violations.'" The CFTC's release of November 22, 2019 (8083-19) uses that wording and names no individual who provided information. BGC told the BBC that Andriesz's allegations "lacked credibility" and were "categorically false," that the claims had been investigated by authorities in several jurisdictions which, in BGC's account, had not substantiated them, and that it denied retaliating against him. BGC said his employment ended "after he refused to follow medical advice, declined to perform essential job duties, rejected reasonable accommodation, and ultimately abandoned his role." The BBC added that Andriesz said he had won a financial award of $420,000 from the US regulator and that, in its words, "The FBI did not investigate these accusations."¹²

The records of the proceedings brought by Andriesz are as follows. In FINRA arbitration 19-01751, filed on or about June 19, 2019, BGC Financial, L.P. was the first of fourteen respondents, which included Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Howard Lutnick and Jean-Pierre Aubin; the panel dismissed the case without prejudice on August 8, 2022 on the ground that the parties had "jointly requested, or agreed to, more than two postponements." In the renewed arbitration, 22-02539, the panel's award of June 17, 2024 provided: "Respondent BGC Financial, L.P., is solely liable for and shall pay to Claimant the sum of $500,000.00 in compensatory damages," and "[a]ll other claims against remaining Respondents Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., Jean Pierre Aubin, Mark Webster, Paul Marc Pion, and William Michael Shields, are dismissed in their entirety." The award states no reasons.¹³¹⁴

Andriesz petitioned the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to vacate, modify or remand the award. BGC's brief of December 6, 2024 argued that the petition was untimely and that the award should stand. In an opinion of April 23, 2025 Judge Lewis J. Liman held that the petition was untimely because Andriesz did not serve BGC within three months of the filing of the award, and, in the alternative, that it "would still fail on the merits"; the judgment of April 24, 2025 denied the motion and dismissed the petition. The opinion records that Andriesz was employed under a contract of January 21, 2015 "as Managing Director from February 1, 2015, through February 1, 2019," and that BGC says his employer was its United Kingdom affiliate, BGC Brokers, L.P. The appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (25-1341) ended with the issue of the mandate on August 28, 2025.¹⁵¹⁶

In Employment Tribunal case 3200408/2025, in which BGC Partners LP, Lutnick and Aubin were the respondents, the judge struck out the whole claim as presented out of time, with an alternative holding that it would have been struck out as an abuse of process; the written reasons are dated August 11, 2026 and find that his employment terminated on January 31, 2017. The BBC wrote that BGC "says it has had no involvement with him since his departure other than responding to litigation he has initiated."¹² The award of June 17, 2024 orders BGC Financial, L.P. to pay $500,000 in compensatory damages, and the tribunal's written reasons of August 11, 2026 strike out the claim before it in its entirety.¹⁴¹⁷

The Transparency Task Force, a United Kingdom campaign group, announced an event on July 21, 2026 at which Andriesz was to speak on the role of the Financial Conduct Authority. Its page states that he "spent 35 years in the securities industry," that his FBI file became public in the January 2026 release under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, that the CFTC "made him a formal whistleblower award," and that the FCA's response was "a Supervision Order." Those statements are the Task Force's and Andriesz's own.¹⁸

The Banker reported on October 2, 2026, in an article by Chris Newlands, that Andriesz, 57, "has died by suicide." The article attributes the news of his death to Andy Agathangelou, founder of the Transparency Task Force: "It is with great sadness that we share the news that Simon Andriesz, a valued member of our community, passed away last week."¹⁹

The 2020 FBI Complaint

The Justice Department's Epstein library contains an FBI FD-71A Guardian complaint form dated April 23, 2021 (EFTA01249210, DataSet 9), titled "Alleged Money Laundering by Howard Lutnick via BGC Financial and Cantor Fitzgerald," filed under a money-laundering zero file and under case 50D-NY-3027571, "EPSTEIN, JEFFREY; CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING." The caller's name is redacted in that file. A second release, EFTA01684300 in DataSet 10, a spreadsheet printout of Guardian complaints, carries the text "24 AM Eastern Time, Simon Andriesz, date of birth" and, at EFTA01684391, "Andriesz, calling from the United Kingdom, previously worked for BGC Financial (BGC) and Can," the text of the entry being cut off at the cell edge. The call time in the form itself is "9:16:24 AM Eastern Time" on October 14, 2020.⁵²⁰

The form records that the caller "was responsible for reviewing, reporting, and compliance for all of North America," and "uncovered fraud, money laundering, Ponzi schemes, and regulatory breaches," so that "he became a whistleblower"; that the caller said BGC and Cantor "received large fines and there are 'live cases' still occurring in the United Kingdom"; and that the caller "believes he has supporting documents which could link Lutnick to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell." It records the allegation of "a 'global Ponzi share' scheme involving over 3,500 BGC employees who are forced to contribute 10% of their earnings into the scheme," and that "Epstein also sold Lutnick a house for $10 dollars through a trust fund, which was then sold for millions shortly after prior to the money going overseas," as well as a statement that the caller "believes its suspicious Lutnick's contributed over 65 million dollars to Haverford College in New York, although he cannot prove any illegal activity concerning this aspect." The form notes 26 results for Lutnick in Sentinel and Guardian queries in the New York division case files, including a restricted closed case "concerning money laundering" and a control file "concerning a RICO violations/real estate scheme," and 34 results in a DIVS query "including three SAR's," and states that "Queries were not conducted on Epstein and Maxwell due to the sensitive nature of the case."⁵ The allegations are those of the caller; the form records no verification.

An email dated July 24, 2025, in the same library, carries a digest of tips with an entry under the heading "Howard Lutnick": "Simon Andriesz reported that Lutnick made his money through Ponzi schemes and money laundering. Lutnick and Epstein were neighbors and Epstein sold Lutnick a home for $10 which was then sold for millions."²¹ The Commerce Department told the BBC the allegations were "a desperate partisan distraction from the historic work of this Administration" and that there was "no evidence of wrongdoing or legitimate cause for concern."¹² The BBC reported that Andriesz searched the library for "HWL" and found 2018 emails between Epstein and that account, among them the May 28, 2018 exchange in which Epstein asked "what do you think the prospects for adfin are?"; the AdFin documents and Lutnick's May 6, 2026 testimony on them are set out at Cantor Fitzgerald.¹²