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Owner of pizza places in Dorchester, Roslindale convicted of being a sadistic bully who beat and tormented his underpaid, undocumented workers

A federal jury today convicted Stavros Papantoniadis for a reign of terror against his workers, which included sending one man into surgery twice and and tormenting other workers by threatening them with death and with turning them into ICE.

The jury, in US District Court in Boston formally convicted Papantoniadis, 48, of Westwood, of three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor. Judge F. Dennis Saylor set sentencing for Sept. 12. He potentially faces a sentence of up to 20 years.

Papantoniadis has been behind bars since his arrest on March 16, 2023, with judges declaring him too much of a threat to the workers who eventually testified against him to let him stay free.

Papantoniadis owns Stash's at Blue Hill Avenue and Columbia Road in Dorchester. He formerly owned Stash's on Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale, but following his arrest, that place closed and was renamed Bel Ave Pizza. However, filings at the Secretary of State's office shows he remains the president of the LLC that owns that restaurant.

According to a statement by the US Attorney's office in Boston:

Papantoniadis forced or attempted to force five men and one woman to work for him through violent physical abuse, threats of abuse, and repeated threats to report victims to immigration authorities to have them deported. According to evidence introduced at trial, Papantoniadis thinly staffed his pizza shops, and purposely employed workers without immigration status to work behind the scenes, for 14 or more hours per day and as many as seven days per week. To maintain control of those undocumented workers, he made them believe that he would physically harm them or have them deported. He monitored the workers with surveillance cameras, which he accessed from his cell phone, and constantly demeaned, insulted and harassed them. When Papantoniadis learned that one victim planned to quit, he violently choked him, causing that victim to flee the pizza shop and run to safety in the parking lot. When other victims separately expressed their intentions to quit, Papantoniadis told one victim that he would kill him and call immigration authorities; and he threatened another worker by telling him he knew where the victim lived. When another worker tried to leave and drive away from one of Papantoniadis’ pizza shops, Papantoniadis chased the victim down Route 1 in Norwood, Mass., and falsely reported the victim to the local police in an effort to pressure the victim to return to work at the pizza shop.

Separately, Papantoniadis now faces trial on charges he defrauded the federal government by claiming money for keeping workers employed during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic for a restaurant he no longer owned.

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Comments

I was under the impression that the convicted criminal was no longer involved with the Roslindale pizza place. Instead, other family members had taken over. I wasn’t sure I believed that, and now Stavros shows up as the actual boss of the “new” ownership. I will never visit this place again.

I miss MJ’s.

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Which was filed with the Secretary of State's office on March 15 of this year, about two months after the Boston Licensing Board granted the firm a license to sell food under the name Bel Ave at the former Stash's address.

In the annual report, Papantoniadis is listed as the enterprise's president, treasurer, secretary, director and registered agent.

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Best steak tips in the city, and had the proper side of mashed potatoes to go with them.

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I'm surprised, yet I shouldn't be, when I think about it. Stavros seems like a wizards name.

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How I know this, I have no idea lol.

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While "Steve" can be a nickname for "Stavros" -- I believe Greek for Stephen is actually "Stephanos".

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"Forced labor", or as we may know that otherwise, slavery. 20 years isn't nearly enough.

It was right when John Brown did it, and it'd be right if someone strung up this guy.

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There's still a Stash's Pizza on Columbia Ave in Dorchester near Franklin Park. Is this owned by the same man? It seems to be open. I wouldn't think it would be a coincidence that they have the same name because it's kind of a silly name.

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It's his original pizza place and didn't close or change names after his arrest, unlike the one in Roslindale.

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only targets the immigrants. Is it any wonder that this greedy thug was able to purposely hire undocumented workers so that he could exploit them with threats of deportation and actual physical assault? It's government sponsored abuse, while our so-called leaders kick the immigration can down the road. This thug just happened to get caught because of the extreme abuse - how many other human beings are living in the shadows, being underpaid and overworked, and living under threat of being sent back to a country that was bad enough that they risked their lives to leave? They are doing the work that is beneath us and our kids. We should think about the human beings cooking and delivering our take-out/delivery, or washing our dishes at our favorite restaurants.

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GOOD!

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