A former senior Connecticut budget official convicted of extorting bribes from school construction contractors has fled the country for Greece, and Greek law may block any effort to bring him back.
Konstantinos "Kosta" Diamantis, 70, a former Democratic state representative who served as director of Connecticut's Office of School Construction Grants and Review, skipped his federal sentencing Thursday in Bridgeport by traveling from Florida to the Bahamas by boat, then flying to London and onward to Greece, where he holds dual citizenship. His defense attorney, Norman Pattis, told U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill that Diamantis had called him Wednesday night to say he was already in Greece and would not appear in court, the Associated Press reported.
Federal prosecutors had asked for 10 to 12 years in prison. Diamantis had surrendered his U.S. passport as a condition of his case, but obtained a Greek passport and used it to leave the country. Neither authorities nor Pattis disclosed when Diamantis actually departed the United States.
A federal jury convicted Diamantis last year of extorting thousands of dollars in bribes from private contractors between 2018 and 2021. In exchange, prosecutors said, he helped those companies keep and obtain work on multimillion-dollar school construction contracts overseen by his office. Witnesses testified to handing Diamantis envelopes of cash in locations including the men's room of an upscale restaurant, a doughnut shop, and his own home.
Messages introduced at trial used code words, "birthday cards," "pars," and "birdies", to reference the payments. Diamantis testified in his own defense, admitting he received money but insisting it was legitimate consulting income. The jury did not buy it.
After his conviction, Diamantis told reporters he was afraid to go to prison. That fear, it turns out, was a preview of what came next.
Before fleeing, Diamantis sent Pattis a 10-page email that his attorney later shared with media outlets. In it, Diamantis cast himself as a victim of political persecution. He accused Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont of using "the power of his office and his powerful friendship with President Biden to create an insular system of justice" aimed at shielding the governor's own conduct. He did not specify what wrongdoing he attributed to Lamont.
Diamantis wrote that he hoped President Donald Trump and the U.S. attorney's office in Washington would review his case. Pattis told reporters after the hearing that he was surprised by the flight but offered a candid assessment of his client's calculus:
"I think that Mr. Diamantis was facing a tough day here today and would have gotten at least four or five years, perhaps 10 to 12. So as a lawyer, I cannot support his decision to take the law into his own hands. But as a fellow human being, I understand why he did what he did."
Diamantis, in his email, described the personal toll in sweeping terms:
"The injustice that has occurred to me and my family by political weaponization is beyond rational belief. I have lost everything that took me an entire lifetime to earn and more. It is devastating to lose your home, your children's home, your car, your job, the ability to get a job, your law license, your honor, your dignity and pride."
Those are the words of a man who took envelopes of cash in restaurant bathrooms and doughnut shops, then ran when the bill came due.
Gov. Lamont condemned Diamantis in a public statement, saying his "repeated efforts to skirt justice are shameful" and calling for his apprehension. State Attorney General William Tong called the disappearance "a shameful insult to every person in Connecticut" and pledged to protect the state's interest and taxpayer dollars. Connecticut officials moved to stop Diamantis's state pension payments, though the specific legal mechanism for doing so was not disclosed.
Judge Underhill set a new sentencing date of Sept. 30 and indicated the proceeding would go forward whether or not Diamantis showed up. The case is not Diamantis's only legal exposure: he faces a second pending federal criminal charge accusing him of taking bribes to quash a state audit of an eye doctor accused of Medicaid fraud.
The pattern of Democrat-linked figures fleeing the country to dodge accountability is not unique to Connecticut. But the Diamantis case carries a particular sting for taxpayers because it involved the public infrastructure meant to serve children, school buildings funded with public money, with contracts steered by a man who allegedly pocketed bribes on the side.
Diamantis's escape route was not random. Greek courts have upheld the position that extradition of Greek nationals is forbidden. Because Diamantis holds Greek citizenship, the prospect of returning him to face sentencing in the United States remains unclear at best. No formal extradition request has been publicly disclosed.
How Diamantis obtained a Greek passport after surrendering his American one is another open question. The logistics of his departure, a boat trip to the Bahamas followed by international flights, suggest planning, not impulse. And the 10-page email he sent to his attorney the night before sentencing reads less like a farewell note and more like a manifesto from a man who had already made up his mind.
Diamantis wants Americans to believe he is the real victim, persecuted by a governor, railroaded by a system, destroyed by politics. A jury that heard the evidence saw it differently. So did the witnesses who testified about handing him cash in envelopes. So did the prosecutors who traced the code words and the contracts.
A convicted public official who took bribes, blamed everyone else, and then fled to a country that won't send him back is not a victim of the system. He is exactly the kind of person the system was built to hold accountable, and exactly the kind who makes voters lose faith when it fails to.