[1] Trained as a engraver, Griotto became an expert forger,[2][3] who became an important member in the espionage network run by Communist International (Comintern) intelligence agent Henry Robinson.

[3] After the Turin massacre in 1922 promogulated by the fascist state of Benito Mussolini, Griotto fearing for his life, took refuge in France in the early 1920s and then settled in Bezons.

[3] He became a member of the Confédération générale du travail unitaire trade union while working in the retail manufacturing workshops in the Asnières-sur-Seine area.

[5] Both Robinson and later Trepper took advantage of the ability of Griotto to produce fake passports and identity document seals.

Griotto was directly betrayed by Trepper, who gave his address to Karl Giering of the Sonderkommando Rote Kapelle.

[3] On the 11 March 1943, Griotto was tried at 62–64 Rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré by Luftwaffe Judge Manfred Roeder and sentenced to death.