Greek tycoons fly Trump's ambassador on private jets

In January 2026, four months after her confirmation as U.S. ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle flew to the World Economic Forum in Davos on a private jet with Alexandros Exarchou, chief executive of the Greek construction and energy company Aktor Group, which she acknowledged in an audio recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. In the recording, made while she sought help getting into a Davos dinner for Eric Trump, she called Exarchou "my people" and said she would fly to Paris on a jet with Greek shipping executive Nikolas Tsakos, chief executive of Tsakos Energy Navigation, with whom she said she had spent Christmas and New Year's in Gstaad. When she checked into the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris for his wife's fashion show, the bill fell to Tsakos, according to people familiar with the matter. Guilfoyle encouraged governments from Bulgaria to Albania to do business with Exarchou and to buy billions of dollars of American natural gas from his company, the Journal has reported. A registered Aktor lobbyist, paid $160,000 through June 2026 according to federal lobbying records, accompanied her to official meetings with foreign leaders, some of whom were not told he was a paid lobbyist. On April 28, 2026, with Guilfoyle and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama in attendance, Aktor's U.S. subsidiary signed a 20-year agreement worth an estimated $6 billion to supply Albania's state gas company with one billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas a year from 2030; Guilfoyle said the gas would come from Venture Global. The State Department's inspector general is investigating whether Guilfoyle received gifts or favors from private businessmen, according to a person familiar with the matter, and House Democrats have called for an investigation into possible violations of federal bribery and public-corruption laws. A U.S. Embassy spokesman said she had "faithfully followed State Department ethics and gift reporting guidelines" and called the claims unsubstantiated. Aktor's lawyers have said she did not improperly promote its commercial interests; Aktor and Tsakos did not comment. Asked about the reporting, Trump said, "It's too bad." As of October 2026, administration officials were discussing whether to remove her.