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AZJonnie

(3,707 posts)
Fri Feb 27, 2026, 03:25 PM Feb 27

Here's a both-sides view of that situation

What Cantor/Lutnick really did wrong (and it was bad)
Within days of 9/11, Lutnick cut off paychecks to the 658 employees who died, leaving their families without income almost immediately after losing their breadwinners.

He also stopped health insurance coverage for those families shortly after, which he claimed was necessary for the firm's survival.

The $135 million lawsuit
Cantor sued American Airlines (and its insurers) for business losses—destroyed offices, lost equipment, business interruption—not for wrongful death; that's a legally distinct category.

They settled in 2013/2015 for $135 million, and that money was distributed among Cantor's partners, not to the victims' families, because the lawsuit was structured as a business-loss claim.

Lutnick himself is believed to have personally received $15–25 million from that settlement, which even some of his own senior executives found deeply objectionable given the circumstances.

What Cantor did on the other side of the ledger
Lutnick pledged 25% of Cantor's profits for five years plus 10 years of health insurance to the victims' families, and by the five-year anniversary in 2006, Cantor had paid out $180 million directly to those families.

He also personally donated $1 million to the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund early on.

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