I have some doubts that executive was speaking the truth. I think maybe they just made that up when people started asking why he was like he was.
I base this on the episode were the secret society of deaf people is looking for an artifact, which is in the Vatican. What the heck does this have to do with anything? I don't know, but it didn't make sense, unless the secret society somehow knew John had all this knowledge and wanted him to give them the location of the artifact, which of course he didn't know the location of.
See? Bah, stupid TV executives.