Four years earlier in Florida, Epstein had been sent to prison for two charges of soliciting prostitution – including one with a minor.

Andriesz suspected there was yet more to find in the Epstein files that could back up his claims – if only people knew where to look in the 3.5 million pages of documents.

“Everyone was searching ‘Lutnick’,” he says. He knew, though, that Cantor Fitzgerald executives preferred to use initials rather than full names in their emails.

Andriesz searched for “HWL” (Howard William Lutnick) and found emails sent to and from Epstein in 2018. Epstein had talked directly to Lutnick about a digital advertising company called Adfin, in which he and Lutnick’s firm, Cantor Fitzgerald, had both invested.

Andriesz spotted correspondence, external where Epstein had directly asked the HWL account: “what do you think the prospects for adfin are?”

Lutnick responded: “Producing revenue finally. This is their year. Next 12 months they need to become economically self-sufficient.”

Andriesz then shared this information with US politicians on the House Oversight Committee, the US Congress’s main investigatory committee.

Lutnick agreed to appear before the committee in an off-camera hearing in May.

He has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and he told the committee: “I unequivocally condemn the conduct attributed to Jeffrey Epstein and everyone who participated in his illegal activities. The survivors of his crimes deserve our respect and support.”