Boston Pizzeria Owner Charged with EIDL Fraud and Forced Labor – Fraud Friday
April 12, 2024
Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor
Pizzeria Owner Charged with EIDL Fraud and Forced Labor – Fraud Friday
Stavros Papantoniadis was indicted on two counts of wire fraud for allegedly applying for EIDL loans using false representations. He is the owner and operator of Stash’s Pizza, a chain of pizzerias in the Boston area. In April 2021, he sold one of the pizzerias, and the Secretary of State canceled the limited liability company through which Papantoniadis owned the pizzeria.
Between November 2021 and January 2022, he applied for an EIDL loan and represented that he still owned the pizzeria that he had sold earlier in 2021. He further claimed that he had 18 employees for that same business. He had allegedly sold the business months earlier before applying, but he was approved for a $499,900 EIDL.
When he was charged with wire fraud Papantoniadis was already in federal custody for charges he received in March 2023, and he will make an initial appearance in federal court at a later date. Papantoniadis was indicted on four counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor.
The government is accusing him of targeting victims who lacked immigration status and employing them at depressed wages. He also allegedly demanded that they work six to seven days a week, often for more than eight hours per day, and typically without breaks or overtime compensation. They also claimed that he allegedly withheld wages from the employees.
Allegations against him continue because he forced or attempted to force at least seven victims to work for him and comply with his demands through violent physical abuse, threats of violence or serious harm, and repeated threats to report the victims to immigration authorities and have them deported.
It is alleged that he slapped and choked one victim and caused him to lose teeth. He threatened an employee who wanted to leave by telling them he knew where they lived. He attacked another victim and forced the victim to run to safety in the parking lot.
With this conduct, he had an advantage over other businesses in the local pizza market since he could operate with fewer and cheaper workers.