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American Morning

One of Most Dramatic Stories Coming Out of 9/11 Was That of Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald

Aired March 12, 2002 - 08:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: One of the most dramatic stories coming out of 9/11 was that of Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald. He used to have an office on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center. He was one of the most powerful men on Wall Street, controlled an empire, 1,000 employees on five floors in all. Then on September 11th, all of it was reduced to a smoldering rubble, and a tearful Lutnick said he would work to help support the families of those who died. Now he says he's about to make good on his word.

Willow Bay has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOWARD LUTNICK, CEO, CANTOR FITZGERALD: We lost every person in our office at 8:45 on September 11th, all the brokers, all the traders, all the salespeople at work. We lost them all.

WILLOW BAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Howard Lutnick wasn't in his penthouse office that morning. He was taking his son to school. But Lutnick was left to cope with an unimaginable loss, 658 Cantor employees, including his brother Gary. His trading firm was virtually wiped out. Lutnick was devastated, and vowed to care for the victims' families and their nearly 1,500 children.

LUTNICK: My partners and I, we talked about it, and we've decided that what we're going to do is we're going to give 25 percent of the profits of the company to the families of the victims to try to take care of them so they stay part of our family.

BAY: But Lutnick the CEO was struggling to save a company on the brink of collapse. Cantor was the dominant player in the government securities business. But without New York offices, trading equipment, or employees, the firm was in chaos.

To conserve cash and stave off bankruptcy, he stopped paychecks after September 15th. Families had no idea what was going on. And many were outraged.

LUTNICK: They call me and they say, how come you can't pay my salary? Why can't you pay my husband's salary? Other companies pay their salary, why can't you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm more upset with the fact that Howard Lutnick went on TV, he's crying, and he promised to take care of us. You can't do that to people, you can't do that to people who have just lost loved ones.

LUTNICK: The fact is that I did not know whether I would have a company over the weekend. You do $200 billion a day in business on Monday, you need to pay for that and deliver it on Wednesday.

BAY: Lutnick was clear -- with traders in London and new makeshift offices in New York, he would try to rebuild the company, and take care of the families by sharing profits for five years, and paying healthcare coverage for 10. So far, he's doing both.

LUTNICK: Cantor had an incredible quarter, and since we give 25 percent of our profits to these families, we were able to give them $4.9 million.

BAY: The families we spoke to are comfortable with the plan, and should be getting their checks any day.

LUTNICK: I think we've shown that we are going to be a very serious success. We're going to take very seriously our commitment to 25 percent to these families, so I think we've got our feet beneath us now and we're moving forward, and that is a very, very good feeling.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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