Guilfoyle promotes Aktor across Balkans as its lobbyist joins her meetings

Embassy staff who built the corridor never met Aktor executives

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle — Donald Trump Jr.’s former fiancée — has promoted Greek construction firm Aktor Group for energy deals across southeastern Europe, while a lobbyist paid by Aktor accompanied her to meetings with foreign officials without always disclosing his ties to the firm. The Journal’s account, which the report described as depicting a fusion of celebrity, business and geopolitics under the new Trump administration diplomacy, drew on interviews with current and former U.S. and foreign officials and on federal lobbying disclosures.

The Trump administration wanted allies on Europe’s eastern edge to buy billions of dollars of American natural gas, and in meetings this spring in Bulgaria’s capital, Guilfoyle told people the Bulgarian government should deal with Aktor, a Greek construction firm that had teamed up with a Greek state-backed energy company to bring in U.S. liquefied natural gas. “There is no doubt that this is kind of an official position of the U.S. government,” said a person familiar with the talks. Sitting beside the 57-year-old ambassador in an audience with the Bulgarian president was 39-year-old Christos Marafatsos, who has attended so many of her meetings that some foreign officials mistook him for her chief of staff. The Aktor CEO, Alexandros Exarchou, had flown Guilfoyle to Bulgaria on a private jet, the Journal reported.

The Journal identified Marafatsos, a Maryland-raised Republican activist who joined Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2015 and later became chairman of Greek Voices for Trump. His prior experience includes co-founding a Washington, D.C.-area produce distributor, working in ventures including an investment firm, serving as vice president of his family-owned construction company, and creating “the ultimate immersive experience” of the Acropolis in IMAX 3-D. He also incorporated a since-dissolved entity called the Institute of Investigative and Translational Medicine, according to corporate records. Several people who have met with Marafatsos and the ambassador — including government officials — said he made no mention of his ties to Aktor. Lawyers for Aktor said the company first met Guilfoyle on Nov. 1, the day she arrived in Athens, when Aktor CEO Exarchou met her; the lawyers said Aktor began retaining Marafatsos after Exarchou attended a September 2025 lunch for top Greek energy players with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum where the corridor was discussed. After the lunch, Exarchou contacted DEPA, the Greek state-backed energy company, and proposed a joint venture that would “lead the charge in supplying non-Russian LNG across Southeast Europe,” the lawyers said.

Federal lobbying records show Aktor has paid Marafatsos $160,000 through June to “establish connections” with the Executive Office of the President, the State Department and the Energy Department. On Nov. 5, four days after Guilfoyle arrived in Athens, Marafatsos began formally working as a lobbyist for Aktor in the U.S. — the first time he had ever registered as a lobbyist. Within weeks of signing Marafatsos, Aktor saw its access to the Trump administration skyrocket. He subsequently added another three Greece-linked companies to his lobbying roster, including an energy company and a shipping and infrastructure company. He reported more than $440,000 in U.S. lobbying income in nine months.

A U.S. Embassy official said the ambassador traveled to Bulgaria “to advance American interests: increasing sales of U.S. LNG to European partners and decreasing European dependence on Russian gas.” He said she was in “full compliance with State Department guidance” on official travel. Jesse Binnall, a lawyer for Guilfoyle, said she has “worked with companies across the energy sector” and has not been focused on one company. He said her official meetings are coordinated through embassy channels rather than through Marafatsos. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement provided by the White House, called Guilfoyle an “incredibly effective advocate for the President’s agenda.” He said he and Trump “greatly value” her work.

Robin Brooks, a 21-year foreign service officer who served as National Security Council director for the Balkans and Central Europe during the Biden administration, said that a U.S. ambassador promoting a foreign company is “absolutely problematic.” Bringing a registered lobbyist to meetings with foreign officials, she said, “calls into question whether the meeting is advancing American interests or advancing some sort of private interest.”

U.S. Embassy staffers who spent years pushing for the “vertical gas corridor” — meant to receive U.S. LNG in Greece and pipe it toward Ukraine — never met with Aktor executives or heard the firm raised as a potential partner, according to former State Department officials who dealt closely with the matter. The Journal noted that the region had only one confirmed U.S. ambassador across 10 countries when Guilfoyle arrived in Athens last fall, part of a pattern of widespread diplomatic vacancies that has dramatically empowered the handful of envoys abroad seen as close to President Trump.

In November, Aktor announced Atlantic-SEE LNG, a joint venture split 60-40 between it and DEPA. At a conference in Greece that month attended by Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Atlantic-SEE announced a 20-year agreement with U.S. firm Venture Global to buy American LNG starting in 2030. Guilfoyle posed with Exarchou as the new joint venture signed agreements to collaborate with Romania and Ukraine’s Naftogaz, among others. A spokeswoman for Venture Global said the company met with Aktor and DEPA to discuss a potential supply deal after meeting with Guilfoyle about the vertical corridor, and that it has engaged with DEPA commercially for years.

Guilfoyle often introduces Marafatsos as “This is Christos,” and he rarely speaks unless the ambassador asks him to weigh in, according to people who have participated in meetings with both of them. She often directs those she meets with to send additional information through Marafatsos. One investor met with Guilfoyle and Marafatsos to seek the ambassador’s help with investment opportunities in the energy sector — including potentially from Aktor. At the end of the meeting, the investor was directed to follow up with Marafatsos. The investor was surprised to later learn that Marafatsos was working for the company and hadn’t said so.

In December, Exarchou attended a soiree at the Kennedy Center and posed for a photo with Trump. At the Davos summit in Switzerland in January, Exarchou met with Guilfoyle and posed for a photo with Eric Trump, the president’s son. A spokeswoman for Eric said he “has no idea who that is.” In February, Exarchou returned to Washington with Guilfoyle, joining the energy ministers of Greece and Bulgaria for dinner at Joe’s Seafood, a Washington surf-n-turf establishment across from the White House. Guests were asked to go around the table and describe how they knew the ambassador or give a toast to her, according to people familiar with the dinner. Fancy James, her stylist who posts photos of Guilfoyle with the hashtag #ambassador, was also in attendance. Exarchou also met with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles during the trip, the Journal reported. At the next day’s conference, Aktor’s joint venture signed new MOUs with gas companies in Bulgaria, Ukraine, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In March, Guilfoyle made an unpublicized trip to the capital of Albania, whose government was trying to grow closer to the White House. She brought no embassy staff, arriving after nightfall in a black SUV, with Marafatsos and Exarchou accompanying her into a meeting with Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama. There, she pitched Albania on energy cooperation. A few weeks later, Albania’s government received an email from the Trump administration’s National Energy Dominance Council, suggesting companies that would be interested in partnering with Albania to buy U.S. gas. The only deal on offer was an arrangement with Venture Global, the U.S. LNG supplier that had signed with Aktor months earlier, said Enea Karakaçi, the country’s energy minister: “Look, I don’t think there were, let me say, many companies in that email.”

In April, Guilfoyle returned to Albania for the signing ceremony of a $6 billion, 20-year agreement that calls upon the state-owned gas firm to buy one billion cubic meters of gas each year, sourced from Venture Global, through a U.S. subsidiary Aktor had registered weeks earlier. Lawyers for Aktor said Atlantic-SEE implements all the company’s LNG deals. In June, Atlantic-SEE said it was doubling the gas volumes it would buy from Venture Global. Aktor estimates that its pretax income from the LNG agreements it has signed or are “in the pipeline to be signed” would amount to 1.8 billion euros over a 20-year period.

Friday brought a setback for Aktor: Ukraine’s state-owned gas company told the Journal that negotiations over future purchases from Atlantic-SEE have halted. It is unclear whether all the deals Aktor has signed will come to fruition.

U.S. LNG companies that have not signed deals with Aktor told the Journal they have struggled to attract Guilfoyle’s attention. Jonathan Bass, the CEO of the Louisiana-based Argent LNG, said his company has been ignored by Guilfoyle. Asked if she has promoted Argent in any of her discussions, he said: “No. She has her favorites.” Guilfoyle’s lawyer said it was false that the embassy had ignored Argent.

At a conference earlier this month in Thessaloniki, the Journal reported, a reporter watched Marafatsos and Guilfoyle arrive in the back of a black BMW at the head of the U.S. convoy; Marafatsos entered the city’s MET Hotel through a separate entrance, away from photographers. Inside, as Guilfoyle prepared her remarks, Marafatsos poked his head out of a side room to talk to delegates; she later handed him her phone before taking the stage, with her lawyer saying he held it because her dress had no pockets. In her remarks, Guilfoyle praised the Atlantic-SEE agreement with Venture Global and touted the progress on promoting the vertical corridor, saying it was “something we haven’t seen, quite frankly, ever before.” She quipped to the audience: “You’re welcome, Greece.”

The Journal also reported on a March argument at an Athens dinner attended by Greek and U.S. officials, in which Guilfoyle clashed with Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou. According to a person who attended and others who were told about it, Guilfoyle referenced the impending collapse of Romania’s government and said, “We can do that to any country we want. We can do that here.” Papastavrou retorted that the U.S. couldn’t replace the government of Greece, which was elected by the people. Guilfoyle’s lawyer disputed the characterization of the exchange.

Guilfoyle, who was once married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, speaks of her strong connections to the Trump family and broadcasts videos to nearly two million Instagram followers, interspersing meetings with regional leaders with visits to European fashion shows and art galas, decked in crystal-adorned dresses. She is friends with Greek pop star Konstantinos Argiros, who at a recent concert spotted her in the crowd chatting with Marafatsos and twirled her around to one of his hit songs. Jefferson House, the official ambassadorial residence where she often takes meetings, has been decorated with large black-and-white portraits of Guilfoyle, according to people who have visited.

Some Greek officials say they are happy their country, often overlooked in Washington, has the attention of an ambassador who can easily reach the U.S. president. They are also fearful of getting on her bad side, the Journal reported.

Guilfoyle’s diplomatic appointment came in the throes of a high-profile breakup with Trump Jr. She began dating Trump Jr. halfway through his father’s first term and quickly emerged as one of Trump’s most aggressive defenders. In her 2020 convention speech, she warned that Democrats were trying to enslave Americans with liberal ideology. The couple got engaged before Trump left office, and that spring they bought a $9.7 million Florida mansion. Guilfoyle pursued a series of business ventures — a line of hair care and fragrances called Flor de Maga; champagne ventures with names such as 1776 Liberté and Liberty Dream; a pet pharmaceuticals service called PETriot Vet, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records. Those trademarks have since been abandoned.

Then she hit the campaign trail for Trump’s re-election, urging the crowd at the Republican convention in 2024 to “rise up” on his behalf. That summer, photos began to emerge of Trump Jr. with 39-year-old Palm Beach socialite Bettina Anderson. Trump, who had been fond of Guilfoyle, took to social media in December with surprising news: He was naming her ambassador to Greece. Her appointment followed behind-the-scenes lobbying by people close to Trump Jr., who supported giving Guilfoyle the job, according to people familiar with the discussions. Guilfoyle had spent weeks calling people around her former fiancé asking how the two could reunite, some of whom began to float the idea of various ambassadorships.

Guilfoyle had long been drawn to Greece: She told friends she liked the country’s relevance on the world stage and its glamorous vibe — citing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, the former first lady who married a Greek shipping tycoon after her husband’s assassination. The U.S. Embassy official said the ambassador honeymooned in Greece and has spoken about her love for the country ever since she studied Greco-Roman history in college. Greek news outlets quickly dredged up additional remarks, noting that Guilfoyle, as a Fox News co-host during Europe’s debt crisis in 2015, had said Greeks needed to be trained like when a “dog pees on the rug.” “It doesn’t matter if you make great yogurt,” she said. “I don’t care.”

Marafatsos told a Greek newspaper that he met Guilfoyle in the early days of Trump’s political pursuits. In the months following her nomination, he became a close adviser. The two were seen together during the inauguration, including at an event honoring the Greek American community where Marafatsos stood behind her as she spoke. At a Greek Independence Day reception at the White House in March, Trump invited Guilfoyle to speak — “She represents the Greek culture very well, I will tell you” — and singled out Marafatsos. “Good looking guy, he is,” the president declared. Marafatsos prepared Guilfoyle for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a person familiar with the matter said. Afterward, she posted pictures of herself in the hearing room with supporters including Marafatsos, writing: “Grateful to be surrounded by incredible friends and family.” He attended her swearing-in ceremony that September.

Around the time of her confirmation, Guilfoyle solicited investments for a vodka company she started called Polished Rice, pitching at least one Greek American businessman on investing $3 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. The vodka line planned to launch at a “global VIP event” in Greece on July 2, according to a legal complaint Polished Rice later filed against its distiller. That was the day Guilfoyle held an American Independence Day celebration in Athens. The plan was scuttled when its shipment allegedly arrived with bottles broken and labels damaged. Guilfoyle’s lawyer disputed that she had solicited a $3 million investment and said she hasn’t pursued private business ventures since entering public service.

Ahead of Guilfoyle’s swearing-in, Marafatsos offered his services to Greek energy and shipping companies. In pitches with CEOs, he touted his connection to the incoming ambassador and listed companies he claimed to work with, including energy giants in the region such as Copelouzos and Metlen, according to a person who has been pitched. Representatives from both companies said they have never retained Marafatsos.

President Trump told people he had offered Guilfoyle the ambassadorship for his son Donald Trump Jr.’s sake, saying, “I had to get her out of here.” A White House official denied the president said that.

Marafatsos said in a statement that he is “proud to champion commercial initiatives that advance U.S. interests and create lasting economic opportunity in Greece and Southeastern Europe” and that he is “grateful for the opportunity to draw on my business experience and leadership in the Greek American community.” His lawyer disputed some of the Journal’s reporting but declined to elaborate. Lawyers for Aktor wrote in a letter that the company was not improperly promoting its commercial interests and that its involvement in the vertical gas corridor preceded “any contacts” with the ambassador; the company is an “attractive candidate for furthering U.S. goals and interests,” they said, because it has no ties to Russian gas, unlike some of its Greek competitors.