Convicted on 21 Counts, Diamantis Skips Sentencing for a Boat to the Bahamas

Kosta Diamantis ran Connecticut's school construction grants program and the state budget office. A federal jury convicted him on 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to investigators. When it came time to be sentenced, he got on a boat instead.

PROOF

A jury found Diamantis guilty of 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators [S1]. Prosecutors charged that he used his position as head of the state's school construction program to steer contracts in exchange for more than $75,000 in bribes [S1]. He was accused of extorting bribes from two companies he helped land contracts worth $8.5 million for projects in Hartford, New Britain and Tolland [S2]. Prosecutors used text messages, bank records and emails to show how he negotiated payments with the owners of Acranom Masonry for help winning a Tolland school contract [S1], and how he traded Construction Advocacy Professionals oversight jobs for a job for his own daughter, Anastasia Diamantis [S1]. The jury deliberated about a day and a half before convicting him on all 21 counts [S1]. Federal law defines the crime he was tried for: 18 U.S.C. § 201(b) forbids "directly or indirectly, corruptly" giving or receiving "anything of value" to influence an official act, and carries up to fifteen years [S3]. Diamantis had asked the judge to set aside sentencing guidelines recommending 121 to 151 months [S2]. He has continued drawing a state pension since his arrest, nearly $355,000 worth [S1].

PUBLIC OPINION

Gov. Ned Lamont said in a statement: "Kosta Diamantis betrayed the public's trust and needs to be held accountable for his actions. His repeated efforts to skirt justice are shameful. I hope he is apprehended and made to face the music as soon as possible" [S2]. Republican gubernatorial nominee Ryan Fazio said in a statement: "When Gov. Lamont promoted Kosta Diamantis and put him in a position of enormous authority over taxpayer dollars, he was putting his trust in him to safeguard the public's money. That decision ended with Diamantis convicted on federal corruption charges, and now he has fled the country rather than face sentencing" [S2]. Fazio, denying Diamantis' attorney's suggestion that he had lobbied for a pardon, told CT Mirror by text: "Kosta Diamantis was employed and promoted by Ned Lamont. Kosta Diamantis should go to prison, not be pardoned" [S2]. Comptroller Sean Scanlon suspended the direct deposit of Diamantis' pension, and Attorney General William Tong said he would go to court to permanently revoke retirement benefits that paid Diamantis $75,000 last year [S2].

BULLSHIT DEFENSE

Diamantis sent his lawyer a 10-page email casting the prosecution as "politically motivated" and accusing the Department of Justice of being "weaponized" against him [S2]. He wrote: "The entire investigation was a politically insulated script written by Lamont, Connecticut DOJ and Connecticut tight knit legal aristocracy hired by Lamont to protect himself and his family from scrutiny and ensure I would be discredited" [S2]. He has also sought a pardon from President Trump; no action has been taken on that application [S1]. None of this squares with what happened in that courtroom. Twenty-one counts, a jury that took a day and a half, and his own admission that Acranom paid him tens of thousands of dollars [S1]. Outside court after the verdict, Diamantis said it himself: "it was a clean sweep" for the prosecution, and "the jury clearly believed them and not me" [S1]. A conspiracy theory about the governor doesn't explain that. It explains why he ran instead of showing up to hear his sentence.

He is a fugitive in a country that does not extradite its own citizens, drawing a pension the state is now scrambling to cut off. That is where the story sits.