# PricewaterhouseCoopers > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "PricewaterhouseCoopers," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pricewaterhousecoopers/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The Big Four accounting firm that keeps intersecting John Kiriakou's story — as a target of the corporate human-source intelligence he collected after leaving the CIA, as the audience of 140 partners he told his Pakistan recruitment story to ("what I did and what you do really isn't that different"), as the auditor that spent three years trying to find the Pentagon's money before giving up, and as the Greek government's book-cooking auditor in the debt crisis, never prosecuted.* - **What:** Big Four accounting and consulting firm (PwC) - **Kiriakou's corporate job:** Collected human-source intelligence on PwC and its rivals - **The keynote:** Early 2010 — pep talk to 140 PwC partners on recruitment-as-relationships - **Pentagon audit:** Gave up after three years — "we can't find where this money went" **PricewaterhouseCoopers** (**PwC**) is the Big Four firm that appears in [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s story from three unlikely directions. ## Target, then audience In his post-CIA corporate job, Kiriakou's assignment was to collect first-person human-source intelligence on his employer's competitors — Ernst & Young, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and consulting rivals like IBM and Accenture.[1] The competitive stakes were concrete: a $50 million deal could turn on PwC undercutting a bid by four million.[2] When his first book came out around early 2010, PwC hired him to keynote an offsite for 140 partners. He told them the story of the al-Qaeda fighter he recruited in Pakistan by treating him like a human being — and landed the moral: *"What I did and what you do really isn't that different, because it's all about the relationship. If I can convince somebody to commit espionage... just because he has a good relationship with me, you can certainly"* close a deal.[3][4][5][6] ## The audits PwC anchors two of Kiriakou's favorite indictments. First, the Pentagon: brought in to externally audit the defense budget, PwC tried for three years and gave up — *"we can't find where this money went."* For Kiriakou, the unaccountable trillion-dollar budget is one of America's major mistakes.[7][8][9] Second, Greece: as the Greek government's auditor, PwC had been falsifying economic records for years — with Goldman Sachs involved — and in the end nobody from PwC, Goldman, or the government was ever prosecuted, while Greeks were left indebted for generations.[10][11] ## See also - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) - [Mahmud (alias)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mahmud) - [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) ## Sources 1. Why I Was Targeted by the CIA (RAI 9/10) (2015-05-06), at 02:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSl53qIE81I&t=172s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2015-05-06-the-real-news-network-why-i-was-targeted-by-the-cia-rai-9-10/ 2. Most Hated CIA Spy on Hunting Osama & INSANE Covert Disguises (Episode 249) (2024-11-07), at 33:15. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FDZozJ9zE&t=1995s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-11-07-julian-dorey-249/ 3. Inside the CIA: Whistleblower John Kiriakou Reveals What Y (2025-03-29), at 08:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUS9gA518Sg&t=533s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-29-lionel-nation/ 4. Inside the CIA: Whistleblower John Kiriakou Reveals What Y (2025-03-29), at 13:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUS9gA518Sg&t=818s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-03-29-lionel-nation/ 5. "All My Stories Have a Bad Ending for the Good Guy" - John (2025-09-25), at 41:11. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41zksLari8&t=2471s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-25-joe-mkhitaryan/ 6. "All My Stories Have a Bad Ending for the Good Guy" - John (2025-09-25), at 47:01. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41zksLari8&t=2821s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-25-joe-mkhitaryan/ 7. The CIA's Secrets on Iran, War, and What Happens Next — (2025-10-16), at 32:46. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=appqKuSX6SQ&t=1966s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-16-truth-hurts-show/ 8. "All My Stories Have a Bad Ending for the Good Guy" - John (2025-09-25), at 1:36:33. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s41zksLari8&t=5793s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-25-joe-mkhitaryan/ 9. The CIA Is the Greatest Threat to the Planet (2025-10-20), at 16:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiRyux1t9TQ&t=996s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-20-the-cia-is-the-greatest-threat-to-the-planet/ 10. The Deep Focus Show (2025-09-05), at 08:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajooPBe19Fc&t=502s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-05-the-deep-focus-show-the-deep-focus-show/ 11. The Deep Focus Show (2025-09-05), at 08:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajooPBe19Fc&t=533s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-05-the-deep-focus-show-the-deep-focus-show/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/pricewaterhousecoopers/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt