Konstantinos “Kosta” Diamantis, a former state lawmaker and deputy budget director, was arrested by federal officials on Thursday and charged with 22 separate counts of extortion, bribery, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators.
Specifically, Diamantis, 67, is charged with extorting contractors on school construction projects and then accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from those companies.
He was arraigned in Hartford federal court on Thursday afternoon, where he pleaded not guilty and was released on $500,000 bail.
The arrest, first reported by The Connecticut Mirror, makes Diamantis the highest-ranked Connecticut official to face federal charges since Gov. John G. Rowland.
Here’s what to know about the case.
Diamantis’ arrest follows a federal investigation.
The charges are the result of a yearslong investigation into Diamantis, who ran Connecticut’s school construction program and oversaw other projects for Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration until he was fired from one state position and resigned from another in October 2021.
Citing emails and other messages, federal prosecutors alleged Diamantis used his position as the head of the state’s Office of School Construction Grants and Review to strong-arm contractors into paying him a cut of the school construction contracts he helped them to win.
A large portion of the federal indictment against Diamantis is focused on his relationship with Acranom Masonry, a Middlefield-based company that won school construction contracts in Hartford and Tolland.
Federal prosecutors alleged Diamantis helped that masonry company to net those multimillion-dollar contracts with the understanding that Salvatore “Sal” Monarca and John Duffy, the president and vice president of Acranom Masonry, would kick a portion of that money back to him.
Three others have been charged, and pleaded guilty, in the case.
Federal prosecutors have already secured several guilty pleas from some of the construction contractors that allegedly paid Diamantis for steering work to their companies.
One of those contractors is Antonietta Roy, the owner of Construction Advocacy Professionals, who was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery.
The other two Monarca and Duffy, who were both charged with conspiracy to commit extortion.
All three pleaded guilty to the charges filed against them earlier this week, according to federal court records, but the cases were not unsealed until after Diamantis was arrested at his home in Farmington on Thursday morning.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not indicate Thursday whether any other indictments were expected, but it said Monarca and Roy had agreed to cooperate with the government.
Several school construction projects were cited in the indictment.
The first school project cited in the indictment was the Weaver High School project in Harford, where Diamantis helped Acranom to settle a billing dispute with the city and to secure another contract in the late stages of that $133 million project.
Prosecutors also cited similar messages that Diamantis exchanged with the two men in regards to the Birch Grove Elementary projects in Tolland, which was built on an emergency basis because the existing school’s foundation was crumbling.
The indictment also highlights a relationship between Diamantis and Construction Advocacy Professionals, which is owned by Roy. That company served as a project manager on several projects, including the Birch Grove school, Bulkeley High School in Harford and New Britain High School.
Diamantis is charged with pressuring Roy to hire his daughter.
According to the indictment, Diamantis pressured Roy to hire his daughter, Anastasia, to work with the company. She was seeking part-time work at $20 per hour, the indictment states.
Federal prosecutors allege Roy eventually hired Anastasia as an independent contractor at $45 per hour. The company then received a $70,000 consulting agreement for the Birch Grove project in Tolland.
Following that decision, Diamantis allegedly solicited another “donation” from Construction Advocacy Professionals.
The indictment claims that Roy responded to that request by writing a personal check to Diamantis for $1,000 and a $500 “bonus” check for his daughter. A month later, Construction Advocacy Professionals got a second contract on the Birch Grove project worth $460,000.
Around the same time, the indictment alleges that Diamantis also assisted Roy in obtaining a $2.29 million contract to oversee the Bulkeley High School project.
The bid submitted by Construction Advocacy Professionals in Hartford was the third-lowest, but Diamantis allegedly convinced city officials to hire the company anyway.