Facing a decade in prison for taking bribes and steering contracts, former state school construction chief Konstantinos “Kosta” Diamantis is believed to have fled to Greece where he holds a passport and could try to hide behind a complicated extradition treaty.
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Diamantis, 70, was to have appeared in federal court in Bridgeport Thursday morning for sentencing on charges that he used his influence over the state’s multi-billion dollar school construction budget to extort bribes from two companies to which he steered more than $8 million in contracts.
Defense attorney Norm Pattis said Diamantis telephoned him from Greece at 6:33 p.m. Wednesday evening and said he had fled and would not return. Pattis would not say where in Greece Diamantis is living.
Information from a variety of sources, including disclosures in court by the U.S attorney’s office, indicates that Diamantis drove to Florida three weeks ago, hired a boat to take him to Nassau in the Bahamas and flew from there to London and later Greece.
“We learned last night in a telephone message from Mr. Pattis that Mr. Diamantis is abroad and is not going to appear today,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Francis told Judge Stefan Underhill in court Thursday morning.
Pattis said, “I can’t say that I was stunned by what I heard from Mr. Diamantis. But I was surprised by the decision.”
Earlier Wednesday, before receiving the telephone call, Pattis said he received a rambling, 10-page memo from Diamantis in which he claims his conviction by a jury a year ago on nearly two dozen corruption related charges was the result of a conspiracy between Gov. Ned Lamont and federal prosecutors to “weaponize” the Department of Justice and use it against him.
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In the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The Courant, Diamantis asserts that his conviction was part of an effort by Lamont to divert attention from his wife’s business. The memo’s repeated references to “weaponization” are similar to language used by Diamantis in a federal pardon application.
“The entire investigation was a politically insulated script written by Lamont, Connecticut DOJ and Connecticut tight knit legal aristocracy hired by Lamont to protect himself and his family from scrutiny and ensure I would be discredited. To this very day Governor Ned Lamont continues to insulate himself from investigation,” Diamantis wrote.
Diamantis also complained that Underhill treated him unfairly during his trial.
“I found it frustrating that the prosecution had all the latitude it wanted in presenting its case and I was put on fast track,” he wrote. “I vented to my attorney regarding that frustration. I often complained of being hurried and not allowed to present our case in full.”
Underhill, who had read the memo, said Diamantis “has a right to his perceptions.” Lamont condemned Diamantis’s flight.
“Kosta Diamantis betrayed the public’s trust and needs to be held accountable for his actions,” Lamont said. “His repeated efforts to skirt justice are shameful. I hope he is apprehended and made to face the music as soon as possible.”
Responding to questions later following a business forum in Hartford, Lamont said, “I can’t believe he didn’t have the ankle bracelet and all the things you would need to make sure he was there…They’re going to get him.”
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Comptroller Sean Scanlon and Attorney General William Tong said they have begun steps to stop Diamantis’s pension and revoke his retirement benefits.
Had the sentencing hearing proceeded Thursday, the U.S. Attorney’s office was prepared to argue that Diamantis be sentenced to from ten to 12 years in prison, a term recommended under the advisory federal sentencing guidelines. Pattis was to argue for a non-custodial sentence, saying Diamantis has been ruined financially and professionally by his conviction and might not survive a long prison sentence.
Underhill continued the sentencing hearing to September 30. At that point there is expected to be discussion of revoking Diamantis’s $500,000 bond and about how to proceed on a second set of corruption charges he faces. In addition to the school construction bribes, for which he was convicted a year ago, Diamantis is accused of taking another $100,000 in separate case for using his influence to kill a government Medicaid fraud investigation for a friend.
Federal prosecutors said they have opened an investigation of how Diamantis, a former 7-term state representative from Bristol and deputy state budget director, managed to leave the country and how he might be returned. Francis said the FBI had made arrangements to be alerted if Diamantis booked travel abroad, but his flight from the Bahamas apparently did not trigger the alert.
“We are looking into why we didn’t know,” he said. “To be charitable, there was some confusion about Mr. Diamantis’ passport.”
Francis said the government was aware that Diamantis had obtained dual citizenship under a Greek passport.
When asked to turn over the passport to the court, Francis said Diamantis claimed it was not in his possession, that he had mailed it to Greece in connection with a real estate transaction. Underhill, too, was aware of the Greek passport. Diamantis agreed to relinquish the passport when it was returned from Greece and the conditions of his pretrial release on bond were not changed.
“It is our information that is the passport he traveled on,” Francis said. “Either he was lying when he said he didn’t have it. Or he violated a court order to turn it in when he got it back.”
While under indictment and awaiting trial, Diamantis applied to the court three times for permission to travel to Greece. He withdrew one application and Underhill denied the other two.
Both Francis and Pattis said the the U.S. extradition agreement with Greece, in particular sections dealing with dual citizenship, could complicated efforts to return Diamantis, whose flight is a criminal violation of the conditions imposed on his release on bail.
“There are issues with Greek citizens being extradited,” Francis said. “We may have to go to the European Union.”
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