A Boston pizza shop owner currently jailed while awaiting trial on federal forced labor charges has been indicted on two counts of wire fraud for allegedly submitting false information to obtain a pandemic relief loan for a business he had already sold, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
In a statement, Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office said Stavros Papantoniadis, 49, of Westwood, was indicted Tuesday in connection with a $499,900 loan he obtained from the US Small Business Administration for a Randolph pizza shop that authorities say he sold in 2021.
Papantoniadis, owner and operator of the Stash’s Pizza chain in Greater Boston, applied for an Economic Injury Disaster Loan for the Randolph shop between November 2021 and January 2022, prosecutors said.
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“It is alleged that, in his submissions to the SBA, Papantoniadis falsely represented that he still owned and operated Boston Pizza Company in Randolph, claiming that he had 18 employees,” prosecutors said.
Papantoniadis will make an initial appearance in US District Court in Boston on the wire fraud charges at a later date, Levy’s office said. His trial on the forced labor charges is scheduled to begin May 20.
In a statement, Carmine Lepore, a lawyer for Papantoniadis, said Wednesday that “we just learned of the new indictment late yesterday but have not yet had a chance to review it, and cannot comment further.”
In a follow-up statement Thursday, Lepore and Papantoniadis’s other attorneys, Steven Boozang and Robert Sheketoff, said their client will fight the charges.
“Mr. Papantoniadis has plead not guilty to indictments charging him with forced labor amidst allegations that he threatened and beat his employees forcing them to work long hours,” said the defense. “Mr. Papantoniadis is a successful business man who owned and operated several restaurants in the Boston area. Over the years he has had several hundred employees working in the various locations, and working alongside his mother, spouse and even children.”
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Many employees, his lawyers said, “would leave for other employment just to ultimately return to work for him again and again. Mr. Papantoniadis is a family man and has consistently given back to the communities where his restaurants were located. A bedrock of our country is that everyone is entitled to be presumed innocent unless and until they are convicted by proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Mr. Papantoniadis is deserving of that presumption and is looking forward to a public trial where he can restore his good name and reputation.”
In the forced labor case, Papantoniadis allegedly “forced or attempted to force at least seven victims to work for him and comply with excessive workplace demands by means of violent physical abuse, threats of violence or serious harm, and repeated threats to report victims to immigration authorities to have them deported,” prosecutors said after a March 2023 indictment.
In denying Papantoniadis bail at the time, US Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein wrote that his “history of violence and threats puts potential witnesses at risk.”
In court documents, federal authorities alleged that seven immigrants from North Africa, Central America, and Brazil were victimized over 15 years starting around 2007. Papantoniadis allegedly warned them that police would side with him because he gave officers discounts at his restaurants, they said.
Prosecutors said the workers endured relentless abuse and intimidation from their boss, who allegedly forced them to work arduously long hours without proper compensation, often under threats of reporting them to immigration authorities.
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A man from North Africa told authorities he worked up to 119 hours each week, according to an affidavit. Papantoniadis allegedly assaulted him several times, once kicking him in the groin with such force he had to have surgery. In other attacks, Papantoniadis broke the man’s upper and lower teeth, authorities alleged.
“There is evidence that the defendant tried to intimidate at least one witness during the investigation, told him to lie to investigators, and threatened him for being a ‘snitch’ who lacked immigration status in the United States,” Dein wrote.
A search of Papantoniadis’s iCloud account found several sexually explicit videos, which prosecutors allege depicted pain being inflicted on women and in one case a boy, according to testimony in court.
Lepore had argued at a detention hearing last year that the allegations against his client were fabricated by workers with an incentive to lie because federal authorities have let them remain in the country during the criminal investigation. He described Papantoniadis as “a family man” and urged the judge to release him on bail.
Lepore also said it was unclear where the videos came from or whether people portrayed in them were actors. To claim they suggested Papantoniadis was “some kind of sadistic individual is absolutely ridiculous,” he said at the time.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.