The commission traces back to Kiriakou’s 2012 arrest. The Greek ambassador called him at the time and asked what could be done to help; Kiriakou asked for Greek citizenship, and — bypassing the normal three-year naturalization process he otherwise would have qualified for anyway — it was granted immediately, both to Kiriakou and, subsequently, to all five of his children.[1] Kiriakou describes himself as regarded as something of a national hero in Greece, a status he attributes to being seen as a Greek-American CIA officer who blew the whistle.[2] John Kiriakou says the Greek government subsequently hired him to write a new whistleblower protection law, prompting five trips to Greece in 2015. He and his collaborators presented the draft to the European Parliament in Brussels, where Kiriakou testified twice; the European Parliament passed it, and the Greek Parliament subsequently passed it as well, making it law across the entire European Union.[3]
First use in court
Kiriakou says the law’s first real test came when a whistleblower exposed Greece’s minister of defense for taking bribes from Siemens — a major domestic scandal that also marked the first time the new law was actually invoked in a Greek courtroom.[4]
Aftermath: a private equity fund
The press coverage of the whistleblower law and the Siemens case made Kiriakou visible enough in Greece that a consortium of the country’s four wealthiest families formed a private equity fund and asked him to run it — a role Kiriakou says he had held since that August.[5]