Boston pizza shop owner sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for abusing immigrant workers
BOSTON - Stavros Papantoniadis, the owner of the Stash's Pizza chain in Massachusetts, has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison for abusing immigrant workers and threatening to deport them.
Papantoniadis, 49, of Westwood, was sentenced Friday in federal court in Boston to 8.5 years in prison, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay a $35,000 fine.
He was convicted of forced labor for using physical violence and threats of reprisal or deportation against employees living in the country illegally.
6 victims
Papantoniadis forced or attempted to force six victims - five men and one woman - to work for him and comply with excessive workplace demands through violent physical abuse; threats of violence and serious harm; and repeated threats to report the victims to immigration authorities for deportation, according to prosecutors.
In June, a jury convicted Papantoniadis of three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor. Papantoniadis has remained in custody since his arrest in March 2023.
Papantoniadis appeal
A lawyer for Papantoniadis said he's pursuing a new trial and an appeal.
"Although the judge saw fit to sentence him slightly beneath the guidelines, we are disappointed in the length of the sentence," Carmine Lepore said in an email. "The sentencing guidelines applicable to this case are more appropriate for human traffickers and sexual servitude defendants."
Acting United States Attorney Joshua Levy said Papantoniadis was driven by greed to prey on his workers.
"Labor trafficking exploits the vulnerable through fear and intimidation, all in pursuit of the almighty buck. That is what Stavros Papantoniadis did when he violated the rights of the people working in his restaurants," Levy said.
"He deliberately hired foreign nationals who lacked authorization to work in the United States and then turned their lack of immigration status against them, threatening them with deportation and violence to keep them under his control," he added.
14 hour work days
Papantoniadis thinly staffed his pizza shops, and deliberately hired workers without immigration status to work behind the scenes, for 14 or more hours per day and as many as seven days per week, investigators said.
To control the undocumented workers, he made them believe that he would physically harm them or have them deported and monitored them with surveillance cameras. When Papantoniadis learned that one victim planned to quit, he choked him, causing that victim to flee the pizza shop.
When another worker tried to leave and drive away from one of Papantoniadis' pizza shops, Papantoniadis chased the victim down Route 1 in Norwood, Massachusetts, and falsely reported the victim to the local police to pressure the victim to return to work at the pizza shop, prosecutors said.
Associated Press writer Steve LeBlanc contributed to this report.