Net worth: $2 Billion (As of March 16th, 2025)
- Billionaire Howard Lutnick currently serves as the Secretary of Commerce. One of his main jobs in the administration is to defend Trump’s ill-conceived tariffs on TV.
- 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-in-law wouldn’t complain if she missed her check.
- Lutnick is 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 special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) during their 2020-21 boom. SPACs, sometimes called blank check companies, are formed by experts (usually investors or sponsors) with special knowledge of a specific industry to raise money in order to purchase another company. Lutnick and Cantor’s use of SPACs led to being charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investors.
- Cantor’s Las Vegas sportsbook business faced fines after its vice president, Michael Colbert was found to have accepted illegal wagers and acted as an agent for “a nationwide illegal betting operation.” In 2014, Cantor was fined over $5.5 million by the Nevada Gaming Control board.
For more information, see the Revolving Door Project’s Oligarchs in Trump World tracker.