Pizza Chain Owner Sentenced For Pressuring Undocumented Workers Into Forced Labor

The owner of a pizza chain who was found guilty earlier this year for blackmailing undocumented employees into working long hours at his restaurants, sometimes without pay, has been sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced Monday. Stavros “Steve” Papantoniadis, 49, the owner of Stash’s Pizza, was sentenced to eight and a half years behind bars and will be required to pay a $35,000 fine following his release, according to the announcement. Stash's Pizza via Google Maps Google Maps “He deliberately hired foreign nationals who lacked authorization to work in the United States and then turned their lack of immigration status against them, threatening them with deportation and violence to keep them under his control,” United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement. “I hope that their strength to speak out sends a message to others whose rights are being abused that the federal government will not tolerate labor trafficking.” Papantoniadis told the court at his sentencing that he’s not the person prosecutors made him out to be, saying he has “the utmost respect” for immigrants, people who left “their whole world behind.