Boston pizzeria owner gets 8.5 years in prison for forced labor of undocumented workers

The owner of a Boston area pizza chain who forced undocumented victims to work for him in grueling conditions, and under violent physical abuse and threats of deportation, has been sentenced to over eight years in prison.

Stavros Papantoniadis, 49, who owns Stash’s Pizza, a chain of pizzerias in Dorchester and Roslindale, severely mistreated six of his employees who were undocumented, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a news release. 

“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,” the release said.

He purposefully employed workers without immigration status to work at his thinly staffed pizzerias for grueling 14-hour or longer shifts for as many as seven days a week, prosecutors said.

He also monitored them with surveillance cameras and "constantly demeaned, insulted and harassed them," the release said.

To keep them under his control, he “made them believe that he would physically harm them or have them deported,” officials said.

Sometimes that abuse turned violent. When Papantoniadis learned that one victim planned to quit, he “violently choked him,” causing the victim to flee the pizza shop and run to the parking lot. When another tried to leave and drive away, Papantoniadis chased the victim down Route 1 in Norwood and falsely reported the victim to police to pressure the victim to come back to work at the shop, prosecutors said.

When other victims expressed intentions to quit, “Papantoniadis told one victim that he would kill him and call immigration authorities; and he threatened another worker by telling him he knew where the victim lived.” 

Papantoniadis, who has faced previous scrutiny prior to this case for his labor practices, was arrested in March 2023.

He was convicted in a jury trial on three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor in June. 

On Friday, Papantoniadis was sentenced to 102 months in prison, one year of supervised release and to pay a $35,000 fine, officials said. 

His attorney, Carmine Lepore, told NBC News Tuesday they were "disappointed in the length of the sentence."

“The sentencing guidelines applicable to this case are more appropriate for human traffickers and sexual servitude defendants,” Lepore said, noting his attorneys are pursuing a new trial and an appeal.

“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,” Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement. “I commend the bravery of the victims here for speaking out and taking a stand against their trafficker.”

Levy said the "stiff sentence" is proof that "there are grave consequences for employers who engage in this type of conduct."

The sentencing of Papantoniadis marks just the latest in a string of complaints over labor practices at his businesses. He previously had pizzerias in Norwood, Norwell, Randolph and Weymouth and Wareham. 

NBC Boston reported that the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit in March 2017 against Stash’s Pizza, Boston Pizza Co., and Weymouth Pizza Co and owners Stavros “Steve” Papantoniadis and Polyxeny “Paulina” Papantoniadis, alleging they failed to pay proper overtime to 120 employees, misrepresented pay rates and falsified time records. 

In 2019, the business owners were ordered to pay more than $300,000 in back wages, according to NBC Boston. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said it received three complaints since 2019 against Stash’s Pizza, similarly over wage and hour violations.