Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter on Friday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his son, Brandon Lutnick, the chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald, seeking information about possible conflicts of interest related to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent tariff ruling.
A Cantor Fitzgerald spokesperson previously told Newsweek about this topic for a related article, it has “never executed any transactions or taken risk on the legality of tariffs.” The Cantor Fitzgerald spokesperson added, “Any report suggesting otherwise is completely false.”
Newsweek has reached out to Cantor Fitzgerald for comment via email on Friday.
Why It Matters
The court’s decision earlier this month was focused on tariffs enacted through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which has been a core pillar of his economic policy since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025. Trump has repeatedly announced, imposed, paused and reinstated a slew of tariffs at varying rates on U.S. trading partners to curb immigration, drug trafficking, and reduce trade deficits.
Following the decision, online posts claimed Lutnick’s sons would come into money over the court’s ruling, some claiming the firm made transactions effectively betting on the legality of the tariffs. Many of the posts relied on a July 2025 Wired report that said Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. was exploring trades tied to potential tariff refunds, citing internal documents the outlet said it reviewed.
Wired wrote, “Traders at the firm’s investment banking subsidiary, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., say they have the capacity to buy the rights to hundreds of millions of dollars in potential refunds from companies who have paid Trump’s tariffs.” Lawmakers later cited such reporting while inquiring about potential conflicts of interest. Cantor Fitzgerald has said the Wired report is “false.”
What To Know
Raskin wrote a letter to Lutnick and his son, Brandon, inquiring “full public accounting,” on the matter, writing “the firm reportedly stands to make extraordinary profits of millions of dollars at the expense of American taxpayers.” He argued that “this arrangement raises significant ethical, legal, and policy questions that demand a full public accounting.”
Cantor Fitzgerald has denied the reporting to Newsweek, and on February 20 wrote in an X post: “Following today’s Supreme Court ruling we want to reiterate that Cantor Fitzgerald has never executed any transactions or taken risk on the legality of tariffs. Any report suggesting otherwise is completely false.”
Much of his letter relies on the Wired reporting that Cantor Fitzgerald has denied, with Raskin writing, “A letter from the firm reviewed by Wired described this approach in detail: for a company that had paid $10 million in tariffs, Cantor would offer $2 to $3 million today in exchange for the right to collect the full $10 million refund if courts struck the tariffs down, giving the firm an extraordinary three-to-five-fold return.”
Raskin then turned to the commerce secretary, writing, “At the same time, Secretary Lutnick, you have been a key ‘architect’ and a ‘cheerleader in chief’ of the Administration’s tariff policy,” adding, “that potential conflict of interest raises some troubling questions of federal ethics and insider trading.”
The letter also points to Newsweek‘s previous reporting, with a Cantor Fitzgerald spokesperson stating that “Any report suggesting otherwise is completely false.” Raskin writes, “That denial is debunked by the documents Wired reviewed last year, which said the firm had “already put a trade through” worth $10 million in tariff refunds.”
In conclusion of his letter, Raskin demanded that Cantor Fitzgerald provide the documentation to the committee by 5 p.m. ET on March 9. The lawmaker requested “all documents, term sheets, agreements, and correspondence relating to the creation, marketing, or execution of any agreement involving the purchase or assignment of tariff refund rights under IEEPA, including the letter and trade referenced in the July 2025 Wired report,” along with any documents showing the identities and figures of tariff refund agreements that were drafted or finalized.
The letter also requests all communications between Cantor Fitzgerald and Secretary Lutnick “any member of the Lutnick family, or any official at the Department of Commerce, the White House, or any other Executive Branch agency regarding tariffs, tariff refunds, or the IEEPA litigation, from January 20, 2025, to the present.”
What People Are Saying
Amy Siskind, an activist and writer, said in an X post sharing a quote from Raskin’s letter to the Lutnicks: “The grift is never ending.”
Anthony Pompliano, an entrepreneur and investor with nearly 2 million followers on X, wrote in a February 20 X post: “It is fairly significant for a Wall Street firm to publicly respond to an Internet rumor. They would only say this if they were 100% sure it was true. No way a large financial firm takes on the risk of publicly saying something untrue in this manner.”
Democratic Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren said in an August 2025 statement following reports of potential conflicts of interest over reported tariff bets: “We write regarding recent reports that your investment banking subsidiary has created a financial product for the purpose of betting on the outcome of litigation related to President Trump’s tariffs … Given that one of the purported architects of President Trump’s tariff policy is Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, your father and the former Chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, LP, the firm’s actions raise obvious conflict-of-interest and insider dealing concerns.
“If the President’s tariffs are ultimately declared unlawful, companies that paid the tariffs may be entitled to a refund of those duties from the U.S. Government. Public reporting indicates that Cantor has offered companies the opportunity to trade their legal claim to a future tariff refund in exchange for twenty to thirty percent of the duties the company paid…A Cantor representative reportedly said the firm has, ‘the capacity to trade up to several hundred million of these presently and can likely upsize that in the future to meet potential demand.’”
Tim Meyer, a professor of international business law at Duke University School of Law, told Wired: “The fact that it’s Cantor Fitzgerald, that raises some questions. It’s quite interesting that the commerce secretary’s firm is the one that is betting the tariffs will be struck down. That strikes me as very interesting—and quite telling about what those with connections to the administration think about the merits of the tariffs.”
Brian Allen, an economic and geopolitical analyst, said last Friday in an X post: “Howard Lutnick’s family firm reportedly bought tariff refund rights for 20–30 cents on the dollar after “Liberation Day” last year. Now the Supreme Court has struck the tariffs down. Translation: For every $100 invested, Lutnick’s sons may have just made 3–5x. Insiders knew. Regular Americans paid. Welcome to Corrupt America — where policy is a profit scheme.”
Mark Lynch, a South Carolina Republican candidate for Senate, said Friday on X: “Howard Lutnick and his Family PROFIT From Supreme Court Tariffs Ruling Howard Lutnick’s family firm reportedly bought tariff refund claims for pennies on the dollar after Liberation Day. Now the Supreme Court has struck the tariffs down, and those bets could pay out big. Add in last week’s testimony confirming his visit to Epstein’s island, and the pattern is hard to ignore. This is exactly how the insider class operates.”
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