‘Exploited, abused his employees’: Owner of Mass. pizza chain sentenced to prison for forced labor

BOSTON — The owner of a Massachusetts pizza chain has been sentenced to prison after federal prosecutors say he “deliberately hired” foreign nationals who lacked authorization to work in the United States and forced them to comply with excessive workplace demands for nearly a decade while threatening to report the victims to immigration authorities for deportation.

Stavros Papantoniadis, a 49-year-old Westwood resident who owned Stash’s Pizza, was sentenced Friday to 102 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $35,000 fine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts.

“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. He deliberately hired foreign nationals who lacked the 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,” Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement.

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 to have them deported. He was convicted of three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor during his trial in June.

An investigation revealed that Papantoniadis thinly staffed his pizza shops and purposely employed workers without immigration status to work behind the scenes, for 14 or more hours per day and as many as seven days per week.

Papantoniadis monitored the workers with surveillance cameras, which he accessed from his cell phone, and constantly demeaned, insulted, and harassed them to make them believe that he would physically harm them or have them deported, prosecutors said.

Papantoniadis took also drastic actions when employees tried to quit their jobs, violently choking one worker, threatening to kill a second person and visit a third at their home, while chasing a fourth worker down Route 1 in Norwood.

“Stavros Papantoniadis exploited and abused his employees, denying them the basic dignity every person deserves,” Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations, said in a statement.

Stash’s Pizza has locations in Dorchester and Roslindale and previously had pizzerias in Norwood, Norwell, Randolph, Weymouth, and Wareham.

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