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Boston pizzeria owner sentenced to prison for abusing employees
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Boston pizzeria owner sentenced to prison for abusing employees


Crime

Prosecutors say Stavros Papantoniadis trafficked 7 of his employees, all undocumented immigrants, forcing them to work long hours and threatening to alert authorities if they refused.

Boston pizzeria owner sentenced to prison for abusing employees

Stash’s Pizza owner Stavros Papantoniadis, pictured in 2016. Pat Greenhouse / The Boston Globe, Archive

The owner of local pizzeria Stash’s Pizza has been sentenced to eight and a half years in prison for forcing his employees, undocumented immigrants, to work long hours without pay or breaks while threatening to inform authorities about their immigration status.

In addition to serving eight and a half years in prison, sentencing documents said the business owner, Stavros Papantoniadis, of Westwood, faces three years of supervised release and must pay a $35,000 fine.

Prosecutors said Papantoniadis designed his businesses to “force victims to work against their will.” Papantoniadis used physical force, threats of violence and threats of deportation to exert control over his workers, prosecutors said.

In JuneA jury found Papantoniadis guilty of three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor, and acquitted him of another count of forced labor. The indictment against Papantoniadis lists seven victims, all of them undocumented immigrants who worked at one of the establishments he owned.

“As a result of his criminal conduct, his businesses were successful,” the sentencing document says. “At the same time, the victims lived in fear, worked when they didn’t want to, and lived always aware of the physical and legal consequences that the defendant could impose. “That fear drove the defendant’s operation.”

Papantoniadis’ methods of abuse

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Papantoniadis deliberately hired undocumented immigrants so he could force them to work under harsh conditions without the threat of legal retaliation.

After Papantoniadis was found guilty, Acting U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy issued a statement detailing how Papantoniadis violated the law and the safety of his employees. In the statement, Levy said Papantoniadis would monitor his employees with security cameras and intentionally make them work more than 14 hours a day, seven days in a row.

When one of his workers threatened to quit, prosecutors say, Papantoniadis strangled the victim and forced her to flee.

Papantoniadis committed similar acts of intimidation toward other employees who tried to resign, prosecutors said.

“Papantoniadis told one victim that he would kill him and call immigration authorities; and threatened another worker by telling him that he knew where the victim lived,” Levy’s statement said. “When another worker attempted to leave and walk away from one of Papantoniadis’ pizzerias, Papantoniadis chased the victim down Route 1 in Norwood, Massachusetts, and falsely reported the victim to local police in an effort to pressure her to return to work. at the pizzeria.”

Papantoniadis’ representation said The Boston Globe that he did not traffic with the victims, but that they wanted to work for him.

“They came to work for him. “It has had hundreds, if not thousands, of employees in 32 years and these people, seven of them, came out of nowhere,” Papantoniadis’ representation told the Globe.

Eva Levin profile picture

Eva Levin is a general assignment co-op for Boston.com. Covers local and breaking news in Boston and beyond.