Crime

Embattled Stash’s Pizza owner indicted on COVID-19 relief fraud charges

Federal prosecutors say Stavros Papantoniadis — already accused of abusing his employees — received a pandemic relief loan for a pizza shop he'd already sold.

By Abby Patkin

April 10, 2024

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Already in hot water for allegedly assaulting and exploiting his employees, a Boston pizza shop owner is now facing accusations he fraudulently obtained a pandemic relief loan for a pizzeria he’d already sold. 

A federal grand jury indicted Stash’s Pizza owner Stavros “Steve” Papantoniadis on two counts of wire fraud Tuesday. The Westwood resident has been in federal custody since March 2023, when he was charged with several counts of forced labor for allegedly hiring immigrants lacking permanent legal status, threatening them with deportation, beating them, and forcing them to work long hours while withholding wages.

Federal prosecutors now allege Papantoniadis received a $500,000 loan from the Small Business Administration in late 2021 for his Boston Pizza Company shop in Randolph, even though he sold the business months earlier. According to federal prosecutors, the embattled pizzeria owner initially sought a nearly $1 million loan from the SBA.

Per the indictment, the SBA’s pandemic-era Economic Injury Disaster Loan program was intended to help with certain business expenses, including payroll. However, Papantoniadis allegedly used his ill-gotten gains for personal and unauthorized expenses. 

Reached for comment Wednesday morning, Papantoniadis’s lawyer, Carmine Lepore, replied: “We just learned of the new indictment late yesterday but have not yet had a chance to review it, and cannot comment further.” 

Allegations of Papantoniadis’s purported misuse of the SBA loan program first arose in court documents tied to his forced labor case last year. At the time, federal officials also alleged that Papantoniadis and his wife were vacationing in Aruba in February 2021 when they collected state unemployment benefits based on claims that they were available to work in Massachusetts at the time. 

Papantoniadis is now awaiting trial on the forced labor charges. 

At the time of his arrest last year, he owned Stash’s Pizza locations in Dorchester and Roslindale and had previously operated pizzerias in several other communities. The Roslindale location appears to have rebranded as Bel Ave Pizza since then.