Pizza Chain Owner Sentenced For Pressuring Undocumented Workers Into Forced Labor

The owner of a pizza chain who was found guilty earlier this year for blackmailing undocumented employees into working long hours at his restaurants, sometimes without pay, has been sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced Monday.

Stavros “Steve” Papantoniadis, 49, the owner of Stash’s Pizza, was sentenced to eight and a half years behind bars and will be required to pay a $35,000 fine following his release, according to the announcement. Federal officials in Massachusetts said Papantoniadis hired undocumented people in order to exploit them.

“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,” United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement.

According to a complaint obtained by HuffPost, Papantoniadis’ legal troubles began in 2017, when the Department of Labor brought a civil suit against him, alleging overtime wage violations. The suit was resolved two years later by a consent decree, but the department opened a criminal investigation into Papantoniadis soon after.

Prosecutors said Papantoniadis physically abused and threatened five men and one woman, who he purposely hired because they lacked immigration status. He would constantly demean and insult his employees, who were working 14 or more hours per day and as many as seven days per week, and would withhold their wages.

One worker, a Muslim man from a North African country who came to the U.S lawfully on a B-2 visitor visa but lacked work authorization, told investigators that he worked for Papantoniadis for 14 years, according to the complaint. He said Papantoniadis would make derogatory comments about his religion and was otherwise abusive, noting in particular an incident in 2007 in which Papantoniadis allegedly kicked him in the genitals.

Medical records cited in the complaint revealed the man had surgery and continued to experience pain from the assault until at least 2021. The man said he continued to endure violence from Papantoniadis, who would choke and slap him.

Prosecutors said that on several occasions, Papantoniadis would assert his control when he learned of an employee’s desire to quit, threatening workers with physical harm or deportation.

“I commend the bravery of the victims here for speaking out and taking a stand against their trafficker,” Levy said in the announcement. “I hope that their strength to speak out sends a message to others whose rights are being abused that the federal government will not tolerate labor trafficking.”

Papantoniadis told the court at his sentencing that he’s not the person prosecutors made him out to be, saying he has “the utmost respect” for immigrants, people who left “their whole world behind … for a better life,” the Boston Globe reported.

An attorney for Papantoniadis, Steven C. Boozang, told the outlet after the hearing, “He didn’t traffic these people.”

“They came to work for him. He’s had hundreds, if not thousands, of employees in 32 years and these people … come out of the woodwork,” Boozang said.

Another of Papantoniadis’ attorneys, Carmine Lepore, did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for a comment, but told NBC News on Tuesday that he is “disappointed in the length of the sentence,” and that Papantoniadis’ legal team is pursuing a new trial.

“The sentencing guidelines applicable to this case are more appropriate for human traffickers and sexual servitude defendants,” Lepore told the outlet.

Homeland Security agent Michael J. Krol called Papantoniadis’s sentence “a message to employers.”

“Labor exploitation targets the disenfranchised in our society but we want employees to know that they have a voice and HSI is working with our partners to uphold and enforce labor laws,” Krol said in the sentencing announcement.