LUTNICK LIES: 8 TIMES HIS TRANSCRIPT IS DISPROVEN BY OUR REPORTING
The House Oversight Committee released Howard Lutnick’s full transcript today. We’ve been investigating him for months. Here’s what he said — and what the record shows.
The transcript runs 96 pages. Howard Lutnick sat in Room 2154 of the Rayburn House Office Building on May 6 and answered questions under penalty of 18 U.S.C. § 1001 — the federal false statements law. He used the phrase “meaningless and inconsequential” more than a dozen times. He called himself a man who avoids people without boundaries.
Narativ has been investigating Lutnick’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, Tether, and the Russian financial network since before his confirmation. Here is where his sworn testimony meets our reporting.
1. THE HOUSE
Q: Did Epstein have any role in the sale of that property to you?
Lutnick: No. I bought my townhouse from someone named Charles de Gunzburg who owned it. So Epstein did not own the house.
When minority counsel pressed him on whether the house had previously been owned by Epstein, Lutnick spent twenty minutes threading language before landing here:
Lutnick: I don’t know and I don’t think I ever knew that Jeffrey Epstein owned the house that I bought.
What we reported:
Property records tell a different story. In 1988, SAM Conversion Corp. bought the townhouse at 11 East 71st Street using Leslie Wexner’s Columbus, Ohio address. Epstein was vice president. In 1992, SAM sold it to the 11 East 71st Street Trust for ten dollars — Epstein was the trustee. In 1996, the trust sold it to the Comet Trust for ten dollars. In 1998, the Comet Trust sold it to Howard Lutnick for ten dollars. Transfer taxes show the real price was $7.6 million. Lutnick took out a $4 million mortgage the same day.
An FBI whistleblower — a 32-year Cantor Fitzgerald veteran — told agents in February 2021 that Lutnick “bought the property for $10 through a trust,” that “LES WEXNER and EPSTEIN owned the building,” and Lutnick “bought it in a very roundabout way from EPSTEIN.”
Charles de Gunzburg may have been a name in the chain. The chain runs through Epstein’s trust.
2. THE E-MAILS
Lutnick: I do not recall ever having a phone call with Mr. Epstein, and I think I had one set of email interactions with Mr. Epstein personally that went — meaning four were written by me to him, but in one — effectively one conversation. I said A; he responded B; I wrote C; he responded D. And I think there were a total of four in one day once.
What we reported:
DOJ documents show some 250 emails between the Lutnick family and Epstein — covering business discussions, fundraiser plans, and correspondence that included an email listing the specific ages, names, and sexes of children coming to Epstein’s island. Lutnick’s testimony accounts for four.
3. ADFIN: THE FIVE-DAY WINDOW
Q: Did you know that Mr. Epstein was an investor in this company AdFin?
Lutnick: No.
Q: When did you learn that he was an investor?
Lutnick: To the best of my knowledge, when these documents were released.
His lawyer added that the Cantor signing happened in spring 2013, not December 2012 as widely reported, and that Lutnick first heard about the investment from a pitch in May 2013.
What we reported:
Lutnick visited Epstein’s island on December 23, 2012. The AdFin stock purchase agreement is dated December 28, 2012 — five days later. Epstein signed for Southern Trust Company, Inc. — the same offshore entity at the center of Epstein’s financial architecture. Lutnick signed for CVAFH I LLC, a Cantor Ventures subsidiary. Whether the signing was December or spring, Lutnick and Epstein were co-investors in a startup through vehicles connected to the same offshore network within weeks of the island lunch Lutnick calls “meaningless and inconsequential.”
PAID SUBSCRIBERS CAN ACCESS 5 OTHER PLACES LUTNICK’S TESTIMONY CONTRADICTS OUR INVESTIGATION PLUS READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT.
