Howard Lutnick's Former Company Denies Profiting from SCOTUS Tariffs Ruling

Questions are swirling around an investment bank formerly run by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick after Friday’s Supreme Court ruling against the Trump administration on tariffs, with resurfaced reports indicating that the firm stands to gain despite the White House’s setback.

The tariff refund deal

A WIRED report from July 2025 revealed that Cantor Fitzgerald – the firm Lutnick chaired, which is now run by his sons, Kyle and Brandon – was telling clients it was interested in buying tariff refund rights for a fraction of the cost imposed by the Trump administration’s duties under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). “So for a company that paid $10 million, they could expect to receive $2–$3 million in a trade,” a letter to clients reviewed by the outlet explains. In light of the Supreme Court’s decision rejecting Trump’s claim that the IEEPA granted him legal authority to impose these duties, it would seem that the $7–$8 million payout on the other side of such a trade ($10 million in refunded tariffs minus the $2–$3 million fee for the original payer’s rights to them) could materialize.

Denials from Cantor

The company has been quick to insist that no such deals were ever completed, both after WIRED’s report and again in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision. “Cantor Fitzgerald has never executed any transactions or taken risk on the legality of tariffs,” a spokesperson for the firm told Semafor on Friday. “Any report suggesting otherwise is completely false.”

These denials contradict the letter obtained by WIRED last summer which, beyond describing the nature of the deal being offered, also stated that Cantor was already doing such trades. “We’ve already put a trade through representing about ~$10 million of IEEPA rights and anticipate that number will balloon in the coming weeks,” the letter says. It also implies that the company was eager to expand this part of its business: “We have the capacity to trade up to several hundred million of these presently and can likely upsize that in the future to meet potential demand.”

Howard Lutnick and Cantor

Howard Lutnick stepped down as chairman of Cantor Fitzgerald in 2025 and divested from the firm shortly after his appointment as secretary of commerce was approved by the Senate. He appointed Brandon and Kyle, both in their twenties, as chairman and executive vice chairman, respectively, and transferred his ownership stake to trusts established for their benefit.

Faced with questions about a potential conflict of interest between the secretary and his former firm, a Department of Commerce spokesperson stated that Howard Lutnick “has fully complied with the terms of his ethics agreement with respect to divestiture and recusals and will continue to do so,” adding that he has “no insight or strategic control over Cantor Fitzgerald.”

Cantor recorded over $2.5 billion in revenue at the end of 2025, a record year for the company and 25% higher than the previous year.