COVID fund fraud yields another 2 years for Stash’s pizza owner

Crime

Stavros “Steve” Papantoniadis was sentenced in October to over eight years in prison for threatening his employees with deportation and other abuse.

The owner of Stash’s Pizza, who is currently serving eight and a half years in prison for mistreatreatment of his employees, was sentenced to two more years Wednesday for using false information to obtain a COVID-19 relief loan on behalf of a pizza shop he no longer owned, federal prosecutors said.

Stavros “Steve” Papantoniadis, owner and operator of a chain of pizzerias in the greater Boston area, sold his Randolph store in April 2021, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley’s office. The secretary of state subsequently canceled the limited liability company through which Papantoniadis, a 50-year-old Westwood resident, owned the Randolph pizzeria.

Between November 2021 and January 2022, Papantoniadis applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan, which was “designed to provide relief for existing small businesses that suffered substantial economic injury during the COVID-19 pandemic,” prosecutors said. 

However, Papantoniadis falsely stated that he still owned and operated the pizzeria in Randolph, and claimed that he oversaw 18 employees at the location, officials said, even though he had sold the business several months before applying for the loan.

Based on his false statements, Papantoniadis was approved for the $499,900 loan, authorities noted.

Papantoniadis was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $534,462.01 in restitution.

In June, Papantoniadis was convicted by a federal jury of three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor, authorities said.

Evidence introduced at trial suggested that Papantoniadis “forced or attempted to force five men and one woman to work for him through violent physical abuse, threats of abuse, and repeated threats to report victims to immigration authorities for deportation if they did not continue working for him,” according to prosecutors.

In October, Papantoniadis was sentenced to 102 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $35,000 fine.

Six months of the sentence imposed this week will run consecutive to the 102-month sentence the court imposed in June, officials said.

 

Lindsay Shachnow covers general assignment news for Boston.com, reporting on breaking news, crime, and politics across New England.