Kosta Diamantis flees US for Greece, skips sentencing

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Kosta Diamantis was convicted of 21 federal counts including extortion, bribery, conspiracy, and making false statements to FBI investigators.

Overview of Crimes

Extortion and Bribery: While serving as the director of Connecticut’s Office of School Construction Grants and Review, Diamantis demanded and accepted thousands of dollars in cash payments and bribes from private construction contractors.

Abuse of Power: He used his official position to promise and award multi-million-dollar state school construction and renovation contracts to contractors who paid him, while threatening to remove contractors who did not.

Conspiracy and False Statements: He was found guilty of conspiring in these corruption schemes and lying to federal investigators during the probe.

Additional Allegations: He also faced separate allegations involving healthcare/Medicaid fraud schemes and quashing a state audit for an eye-care practice while working in the state budget department.

After being found guilty, Diamantis fled the US for Greece, escaping his scheduled federal sentencing.

Infuriating, isn't it?

I asked Grok for status of extradition between USA and Greece:

The United States and Greece maintain a bilateral extradition treaty originally signed in 1931 and later updated by a 2006 protocol that entered into force in 2010. The agreement covers a range of offenses including embezzlement or criminal malversation by public officers and obtaining money or property by false pretenses.
Two significant limitations apply under the treaty and Greek law. The treaty provides that neither country is required to surrender its own citizens except in cases where citizenship was acquired after the crime occurred. Greek domestic law, specifically Article 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, further prohibits extradition when the requested person held Greek citizenship at the time the alleged acts were committed. Greece generally does not extradite its nationals to countries outside the European Union.
Diamantis holds dual U.S. and Greek citizenship.
U.S. prosecutors have indicated they will pursue extradition directly with Greece or through European Union channels. Both prosecutors and Diamantis’s attorney have stated that any such process would be complicated and could require years, if it succeeds at all. The treaty also contains a political-offense exception that could be invoked, although public-corruption convictions are ordinarily classified as ordinary criminal matters rather than political offenses.
Should Greece decline extradition, it retains the option to initiate its own domestic prosecution using evidence provided by U.S. authorities, consistent with the principle of “extradite or prosecute.” At present Diamantis remains in Greece, a U.S. bench warrant has been issued, and sentencing has been reset for September 30, 2026, whether or not he appears. The final result will turn on how Greek authorities determine his citizenship status and apply both the treaty and domestic law.

The funny thing is he seems to be a small-time, chump-change operator compared to the Somali scams. Diamantis was convicted of taking bribes and extorting contractors, not of embezzling state funds directly. The money came from private construction companies in exchange for help winning or keeping state-funded school projects.In the school-construction case that produced the 21-count conviction: He admitted receiving $70,000 from Acranom Masonry (Salvatore Monarca and John Duffy). Witnesses described the payments as cash delivered in envelopes at locations that included a Dunkin’ Donuts, Diamantis’s home, and a restaurant bathroom. One bid was structured to include a $70,000 payoff, and he demanded $40,000 in a recorded voicemail. Antonietta Roy of Construction Advocacy Professionals paid him $4,500 in checks and cash and hired his daughter at $45 per hour.

The school-construction payments were “thousands” or “tens of thousands” of dollars 2018-2021. A separate pending case alleges he received about $95,000 to help quash a Medicaid-related audit of an eye-care practice. Those charges have not produced a conviction.No public figure has been given for a single total across both matters. The proven amounts in the case that sent him fleeing sentencing are the $70,000 plus $4,500 described above.

What's particularly infuriating is the government spending all the time and money to bring 20 counts against a small-time operator and the tens or hundreds of billions of dollars of Somali fraud don't get similar attention.

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