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Kimberly Guilfoyle, as America’s newly minted ambassador to Greece, boasted at Davos about her close ties to two Greek tycoons and said they were bankrolling her high-rolling trips around the world.

According to people who heard the conversation and an audio recording reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Guilfoyle was flexing her connections to wealthy Greek businessmen in January as she made an urgent request. She was being blocked from attending an upcoming dinner being held for Eric Trump, and she wanted to enlist an American businessman who was on the guest list to help get her in the door.

“You know, I can deliver the world to you. Which you deserve,” she said, according to the recording. “I’m going to make you a lot of f—ing money,” she said at another point in the exchange with the businessman.

She expressed fury at not being on the list for the dinner, which was being organized by Greek House Davos. “You don’t have the f—ing U.S., you know, ambassador to Greece not come. She should be kissing my f—ing ass,” Guilfoyle said of the event’s organizer.

In the end, Guilfoyle was able to score a last-minute seat. The chairwoman of Greek House Davos, Irene Vantaraki, said that her team “had to manage a small crisis [that] affected a number of high-profile guests” and that “some were disappointed.” Guilfoyle was “gracious and discreet” and left the dinner early, she said.

Guilfoyle had flown to the January 2026 World Economic Forum on a private jet with Alexandros Exarchou, chief executive of the Greek construction company Aktor Group, she acknowledged on the recording.

Governments from Bulgaria to Albania were encouraged by Guilfoyle to do business with Exarchou and buy billions of dollars of American natural gas from his company, the Journal has reported. The Greek businessman was, she said in the recording, “my people.”

He wasn’t the only businessman facilitating Guilfoyle’s travels. She was also planning to fly later that month to Paris, on a jet with a Greek shipping tycoon, Nikolas Tsakos, to attend his wife’s fashion show, she said in the recording. They had spent part of the holiday season together in the exclusive ultraluxury Swiss resort of Gstaad.

“I see Nikos every f—ing day,” she said in the recording. “I’m flying with him to Paris. I’m with him for a f—ing week.… He loves me. Honey, I spent Christmas with him. New Years. OK? Gstaad. Like, everywhere.”

When the ambassador checked into Paris’s Four Seasons Hotel George V—a favored hotel of Hollywood A-listers and African and Middle Eastern leaders—the bill fell to Tsakos, CEO of Tsakos Energy Navigation, according to people familiar with the matter. Guilfoyle would post 20 photos of herself at the event to her two million Instagram followers, dressed in several designer gowns, including two with Tsakos.

Tsakos’s financing of her travel hasn’t been previously reported. Tsakos and his wife didn’t respond to requests for comment. Aktor Group, through lawyers, declined to comment. The lawyers for Aktor have said Guilfoyle wasn’t improperly promoting Aktor’s commercial interests.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Athens said that the ambassador’s “career in and out of public service is guided by deep and abiding values” and that she had “faithfully followed State Department ethics and gift reporting guidelines.”

“The unsubstantiated claims are simply a distraction from the great work she is doing in Greece and the broader Eastern Mediterranean,” the spokesman said.

The new revelations come as top Trump administration officials are deliberating what to do about an ambassador who was once set to marry into the first family, yet is now evolving into a political liability ahead of the 2026 midterms. Administration officials are discussing whether she should be removed, and a decision is expected by President Trump soon, aides said.

The State Department’s inspector general is investigating whether Guilfoyle received gifts or favors from private businessmen, a person familiar with the matter said.

On Wednesday, the Journal published text messages showing Guilfoyle asked a Trump donor to send $100,000 to her American Express account, and in return offered help in getting the Trump administration to look into the donor’s personal tax and legal issues. A lawyer for Guilfoyle disputed the authenticity of the messages but declined to provide specifics.

“I just heard about it. It’s too bad,” Trump told reporters of the reporting on Guilfoyle as he left the White House on Friday. “I mean, I don’t know. She’s an ambassador.… She was always very nice.”

Last week, Guilfoyle came under fire from Democrats on the Senate and House foreign-affairs committees, who urged the State Department to review her conduct after the Journal investigation revealed the ambassador’s efforts to promote Aktor, the Greek firm whose CEO had flown her to Davos.

The revelations have been a disruption for the White House and State Department. Guilfoyle spent several days reaching out to people in and around the administration, denying that she had sent the texts soliciting credit-card relief, and seeking their support.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio learned about her text messages from the Journal’s request for comment as he was on a plane to Athens, where he would deliver a speech standing before the Acropolis, “on whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world.” Aides were frustrated and feared the revelations would overshadow Rubio’s marquee address, according to people familiar with the discussions. Guilfoyle joined Rubio for multiple events during his visit.

Yet as Rubio departed Athens on Thursday, he declined to discuss the text messages reported by the Journal. “We don’t conduct these things in a press conference on a tarmac in a foreign country because you wrote a story,” he told reporters. Guilfoyle was on the tarmac to see him off.

Vice President JD Vance, asked about the Journal’s reporting on Friday, declined to take a stance. “These are accusations,” he said. “Let’s see what the truth is. And obviously, if there was something bad that happened, then people have to suffer consequences.”

Some former Trump officials expressed skepticism that Guilfoyle would face consequences. Stephanie Grisham, first lady Melania Trump’s former spokeswoman, wrote in a post on X: “She knows far too much about the Trump family/inner circle & I imagine they like her as far away as possible. An angry KG stateside would not be a good thing for Trumpworld.”

In recent days, congressional Democrats have intensified their calls for Guilfoyle to face an investigation or be ousted from her role—or both.

In a letter to Guilfoyle on Friday, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D., N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called for an “immediate investigation” into whether the ambassador had violated federal bribery and public corruption laws. Meeks also requested the State Department inspector general investigate whether Guilfoyle had violated federal law, department regulations or ethics requirements.

California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee, in a letter to Guilfoyle on Thursday said the reported conduct “raises serious public corruption and national security concerns” and requested she provide financial records and copies of her communications with certain government officials.

The Trump administration’s talks with Russia about ending the war in Ukraine have expanded to include a multibillion-dollar oil deal that would benefit Middle Eastern business executives with ties to the two main U.S. negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

The deal, which is contingent on approval from the U.S. government and the Kremlin, is for a sprawling set of oil fields, refineries and gas stations around the world owned by Lukoil, one of Russia’s biggest energy companies.

The leading group seeking the deal includes an American investor, Todd Boehly, who has donated $2 million to President Trump’s political causes; two Middle Eastern groups that have done business with Mr. Kushner or Mr. Witkoff’s family; and an arm of the U.S. government itself.

The monthslong negotiations, which were described by eight people familiar with them, shed new light on Mr. Trump’s latest approach to settling a four-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

There is no indication that Mr. Kushner or Mr. Witkoff themselves stand to profit. But the pending deal represents a striking intermingling of personal business ties with geopolitics, even for an administration that has regularly dismissed concerns about potential conflicts of interest.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia brought up the deal when he met with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner at the Kremlin on Sept. 5, according to three people familiar with the meeting. Mr. Putin proposed it get done as a way of showing Russians that they can do business with the United States, according to one of the people.

The Americans responded that they would work on it, the person said, seeing it as a way to build good will with the Kremlin while also lowering global energy prices. But the deal is also a lucrative one for the buyers: U.S. approval for the sale would release the assets from American sanctions, instantly increasing their value.

In Moscow, the decision on the deal is widely seen as Mr. Putin’s to make, even though Lukoil is technically a private company. The upshot is that the giant transaction, involving assets as varied as oil fields in Cameroon, refineries in Europe and gas stations in New Jersey, comes down to Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump has been promoting the promise of business deals with Russia since early last year, describing the country as a “tremendous opportunity.” The deal again brings Mr. Trump’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency company — co-founded by Mr. Witkoff — into focus. One of the investors in the Lukoil deal is a part owner of World Liberty.

Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, who have traveled repeatedly to Russia for meetings with Mr. Putin, have argued that the potential to rebuild economic ties with the West could convince the Russian president to compromise in Ukraine. The administration has recently signaled it is open to deals with Russia even before the war ends, as a way of showing it is serious about resetting the United States’ relationship with Moscow.

The Lukoil sale, people familiar with the matter say, is one of those deals.

In a statement, a senior administration official confirmed that Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner played a direct role in helping negotiate the financial terms of the investment by the federal government in the deal to ensure that it included “a substantial upfront payment and profits interest for the United States.”

A spokeswoman for Mr. Witkoff said that he “takes no salary and travels the world on his own plane, at his own expense, working on behalf of President Trump to negotiate peace and bring hostages home to their families.” She added that Mr. Witkoff “has no conflict of interest and no financial stake in this matter.”

Numerous potential bidders expressed interest in at least part of Lukoil’s international holdings when the assets went on the market last fall, including U.S. energy giants like Chevron.

The Washington private equity firm Carlyle reached a tentative agreement in January to buy a large share of the assets, after making the pitch that bringing Lukoil’s international portfolio under U.S. ownership would further the Trump administration’s goal of “energy dominance.”

But in recent months, as U.S. approval for Carlyle’s bid stalled, a different group emerged as the leading bidder: one led by Mr. Boehly, a billionaire supporter of Mr. Trump’s, alongside well-connected figures in the Middle East and the U.S. government itself. The members of the partnership were reported last week by The Financial Times.

Mr. Boehly is a co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and donated $1 million to MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned political committee, in December 2025. He gave another $1 million through his investment firm, Eldridge Industries, to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

The U.S. government is taking a stake in the deal through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, an agency that invests in and lends to projects overseas. A D.F.C. official said in a statement that the potential Lukoil deal “would advance the Trump administration’s commitment to strengthen U.S. economic security, advance U.S. foreign policy and lower energy prices for everyday Americans.”

But it would not be an all-American purchase.

A major equity holder would be the Qatar-based conglomerate controlled by Moutaz Al-Khayyat and his brother Ramez Al-Khayyat, both of whom attended Mr. Trump’s inauguration in 2025 and have since formed a partnership with Mr. Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, one of Mr. Trump’s daughters, to help finance a multibillion-dollar luxury hotel resort project in southern Albania.

Another major stakeholder would be an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the United Arab Emirates’s top national security adviser, who controls another fund that purchased a large stake in the Trump family’s cryptocurrency company, World Liberty, run in part by Mr. Witkoff’s son.

Steve Witkoff was a co-founder of World Liberty, and Mr. Trump’s sons are also involved in the company, which generated $799 million for Mr. Trump last year, in part because of an additional cryptocurrency purchase worth $2 billion that Sheikh Tahnoon’s affiliate made in 2025. Mr. Witkoff himself has sold off his stake in World Liberty, a person close to him said.

Sheikh Tahnoon also helps oversee an Abu Dhabi investment fund called Lunate, which is among the largest stakeholders in the private equity firm Mr. Kushner set up after he left the White House at the end of Mr. Trump’s first term. This means Sheikh Tahnoon is effectively a business partner of Mr. Kushner’s as well.

Hui Chen, a former Justice Department prosecutor and a white collar crime and ethics adviser who served until the start of Mr. Trump’s first term, said the connections between Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner to players in the Lukoil deal illustrated why friends and family members of Mr. Trump’s should not be top foreign policy advisers.

“This is an alarming and very concerning set of entanglements,” said Ms. Chen, who has also worked as a corporate compliance lawyer. “And it means you have to question how the Trump administration is evaluating the different bidders involved here. Are the personal interests involved going to wrongly influence the outcome?”

Lukoil’s international division, which is based in Austria, hired its own Washington-based consultant who is close to Mr. Trump, Bryan Lanza, who served as a senior adviser to Mr. Trump’s 2024 election campaign and now works at Mercury Public Affairs. He is no longer working for Lukoil, a person familiar with the matter said.

The deal is not yet final, and would need to be approved by the Treasury Department, which oversees sanctions enforcement.

But in the case of Lukoil, people involved said, the key decisions are being made at the White House. Asked about its approach to the Lukoil decision, a Treasury Department spokeswoman said that the agency’s Office of Foreign Assets Control “implements foreign policy as determined by the White House.”

The Sept. 5 meeting with Mr. Putin was the first time that Lukoil came up in the Russian president’s conversations with Mr. Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, one person familiar with the matter said.

But Kirill Dmitriev, Mr. Putin’s economic envoy, has been closely involved, people familiar with the sale process said. He traveled to New York and Washington for meetings last month, and told reporters that “dialogue” with the United States was “continuing across many areas, including energy.”

Lukoil’s refineries in the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Romania play an important role. They produce diesel and jet fuel, which have been in short supply since the start of the Iran war, which has driven up prices and given Mr. Trump an incentive to support a deal that could provide more access to energy.

Lukoil valued its international assets at $20 billion earlier this year, but the price and structure of the proposed deal are not clear.

An official with the D.F.C., the U.S. agency investing in the deal, described participation in the purchase as a way to strengthen the energy security of U.S. allies. The official also said the deal would produce significant profits for the American taxpayer and keep strategic infrastructure away from adversaries.

The Trump administration imposed sanctions on Lukoil a year ago, describing the move as new pressure on Mr. Putin to “stop the killing.” It also created a lucrative opportunity: Lukoil was forced to sell off its sprawling portfolio of international holdings.

Investors around the world scrambled to bid on the assets, but the U.S. government held veto power because it controlled how to enforce its sanctions. Because of Russia’s autocratic system, Mr. Putin was seen as the final decision maker in Moscow .

The bidding frenzy accelerated last November, when the Treasury Department rejected an initial offer by Gunvor, a Swiss-based energy trading company with past ties to Russia, which had moved to buy Lukoil’s foreign assets. The Treasury Department said in a statement that “as long as Putin continues the senseless killings, the Kremlin’s puppet, Gunvor, will never get a license to operation and profit.”

Carlyle secured a “nonexclusive” agreement in January with Lukoil to sell its international assets. It was up to the Treasury Department to then sign off on the deal. As months passed with no final deal, other bidders intensified their efforts to step in.

Mr. Boehly has little experience in the oil and gas industry. He has made most of his money through investment firms such as Guggenheim Partners and Eldridge Industries, as well as sports team and entertainment industry investments, including Bruce Springsteen’s music catalog.

But over the last several years, the billionaire Khayyat brothers, who were born in Syria before moving to Qatar during the Syrian civil war, have begun to amass a collection of oil industry assets and planned projects in Syria, Libya and Iraq.

Even while the Lukoil negotiations were underway, the Khayyats were continuing to work with Mr. Kushner and Ivanka Trump over plans to build the luxury resort in Albania, an effort that included a meeting involving Ramez Al-Khayyat and Ms. Trump earlier this year in Albania, The Times reported.

The decision over Lukoil’s fate has taken so long that the Treasury Department has had to repeatedly issue extensions to its sanctions action, so that Lukoil gas stations in the United States and other businesses around the world could continue to engage with other financial partners. The most recent extension lasts until Oct. 29.