The owner of a Boston area pizza chain who forced undocumented victims to work for him in grueling conditions, and under violent physical abuse and threats of deportation, has been sentenced to over eight years in prison.
Stavros Papantoniadis, 49, who owns Stash’s Pizza, a chain of pizzerias in Dorchester and Roslindale, severely mistreated six of his employees who were undocumented, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a news release.
“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,” the release said.
He purposefully employed workers without immigration status to work at his thinly staffed pizzerias for grueling 14-hour or longer shifts for as many as seven days a week, prosecutors said.
He also monitored them with surveillance cameras and “constantly demeaned, insulted and harassed them,” the release said.
To keep them under his control, he “made them believe that he would physically harm them or have them deported,” officials said.
