Net worth: $2 Billion (As of March 16th, 2025)
- Billionaire Howard Lutnick currently serves as the Secretary of Commerce. When he isn’t on TV trying to assure the American people that simplistic tariffs are a good thing, he’s counting the money from his net worth of 2 billion dollars or being cheered on by various industry voices.
- As one of his first actions as Commerce Secretary, Lutnick complained that people who were reasonably upset by the fact that they potentially were not getting social security checks were fraudsters. He went so far as to say his mother-ln-law wouldn’t complain if she missed her check
- Lutinick is another Wall Street vulture being the “former” head of Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment banking firm. Known as the “most hated man on Wall street” (befitting for the Trump administration), Lutnick is infamous for his use of the late 2000s-era special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). SPACs, sometimes called blank check companies, are formed by experts (usually investors or sponsors) with special knowledge of a specific industry to which they exclusively raise funds that can be used to acquire another company. They were popular in the lead up to the 2007-2009 financial crash. Critics have blamed SPACs for their role in market volatility. Lutnick himself was accused of basically using SPACS to steal from people. Lutnick and Cantor’s use of SPAC led to being charged by the Securities and Exchanges Commission for misleading investors.
- Cantor’s Las Vegas sportsbook business faced fines after its vice president, Michael Colbert was found to have accepted illegal wages and aged as an agent to “a nationwide illegal betting operation.” In fact, in 2014, Lutnick signed off on an over $5.5 million fine with the Negava Gaming Control board.
For more information, see the Revolving Door Project’s Billionaires in Trump World tracker.