Investigators and reporters, reporting notably by Wired, described Cantor Fitzgerald exploring a business where it would buy the rights to future tariff refunds from importers for about 20 to 30 cents on the dollar.

Internal materials cited in those reports suggested Cantor had capacity to trade several hundred million dollars of these refund rights and had already facilitated at least one trade of around $10 million in rights under the IEEPA tariffs.

What Cantor and Luttnick's side say, Cantor Fitzgerald has publicly stated that while some salespeople explored, I like that in quotes, brokering tariff refund rates in 2025, the firm never executed any transactions or taken any position on tariff refund claims, calling contrary reports false.