Examining magistrate Dimitris Foukas has ordered the arrest of a 65-year-old man who served as a high-ranking employee of the US embassy — identified as “William B.” — on charges of espionage stemming from a major wire-tapping operation that targeted Greek leadership a decade ago.

Foukas – responsible for the probe into the mobile phone-tapping of several prominent Greeks, including then prime minister Costas Karamanlis – believes that the defendant played a major role in the operation, which caused significant political reverberations at the time.

Phone records examined found that one of the controversial mobile connections was diverted to a phone number listed to the US embassy in Athens. The magistrate has evidence that shows that the wife of the former US embassy employee bought one of the so-called “shadow phones” connected to a recording machine from an electronics store in Piraeus in June 2004.

Following the breakout of the scandal, the defendant left Greece for a short period and returned in August 2005 under a diplomatic identity as the first secretary of the US Embassy. The defendant cooperated with Greek authorities on counter-terrorism issues. He appears to have served in a “US intelligence service” since 1990 when he was transferred to Athens. It is currently being investigated if he has any involvement in an alleged assassination plot targeting Karamanlis, a repeated “theme” in media speculation in the country, given as the “main reason” the latter shuns the political limelight. Of course, Karamanlis lost a general election in October 2009 but has remained as an active Parliament deputy ever since.

A few months ago, the defendant’s lawyer had said he would be willing to cooperate with Greek authorities but he had never visited the examining magistrate’s office to provide information for the investigation.