A former senior budget official under Connecticut's Democratic governor used a Greek passport to flee the country by boat and plane ahead of a federal sentencing that could have put him behind bars for a decade, and Greek law may make it nearly impossible to bring him back.
Konstantinos "Kosta" Diamantis, 70, a convicted felon who extorted private contractors for thousands of dollars in bribes tied to multimillion-dollar school construction contracts, skipped his scheduled sentencing Thursday in federal court in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His defense attorney, Norman Pattis, told the judge he had spoken with Diamantis by phone Wednesday night and learned his client was already in Greece, and would not be showing up.
Federal prosecutors told the court that Diamantis traveled by boat from Florida to the Bahamas, then boarded a plane to London before continuing on to Greece. He had surrendered his U.S. passport as a condition of his release, but he holds dual American and Greek citizenship and AP News reported he obtained a Greek passport, a move that now shields him behind a Greek legal principle barring the extradition of its own nationals.
U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill set a new sentencing date of September 30, and made clear the proceeding would go forward whether Diamantis appeared or not.
Pattis, speaking to reporters after the hearing, did not hide his surprise. He also did not hide his sympathy. As the New York Post reported, the defense attorney offered a blunt assessment of his client's calculation:
"I think that Mr. Diamantis was facing a tough day here today and would have gotten at least four or five years, perhaps 10 to 12. So as a lawyer, I cannot support his decision to take the law into his own hands. But as a fellow human being, I understand why he did what he did."
Prosecutors had asked for 10 to 12 years in prison. Pattis had argued in court filings for no prison time at all, only strict conditions of release. The gap between those two positions tells you how Thursday was likely to go for Diamantis.
A federal jury convicted Diamantis last year of extorting private contractors for bribes between 2018 and 2021. The scheme was straightforward: companies paid Diamantis thousands of dollars, and in return he helped them keep and obtain work on multimillion-dollar school construction contracts overseen by the state's Office of School Construction Grants and Review, which Diamantis directed.
At trial, Diamantis took the stand in his own defense. He admitted receiving the money but insisted it was legitimate consulting income. The jury did not buy it. After the verdict, Diamantis told reporters he was afraid to go to prison.
Now, rather than face that fear, he is sitting in Greece, beyond the practical reach of American courts. Cases involving public figures abroad amid legal scrutiny raise the same uncomfortable question: what happens when someone with the means and the passport simply leaves?
Before he disappeared, Diamantis sent a 10-page email to Pattis. The attorney provided copies to media outlets. In it, Diamantis denied wrongdoing, accused Governor Ned Lamont of weaponizing the justice system against him, and painted himself as the real victim.
"The injustice that has occurred to me and my family by political weaponization is beyond rational belief. I have lost everything that took me an entire lifetime to earn and more. It is devastating to lose your home, your children's home, your car, your job, the ability to get a job, your law license, your honor, your dignity and pride."
Diamantis claimed Lamont used "the power of his office and his powerful friendship with President Biden to create an insular system of justice" aimed at protecting the governor's own wrongdoing. He did not specify what wrongdoing he meant. He also said he hoped President Donald Trump and the U.S. attorney's office in Washington would review his case.
That is a lot of finger-pointing from a man who admitted on the witness stand that he took money from contractors his office regulated, and whose jury disagreed only with his characterization of the payments. Corruption cases that touch on powerful figures evading accountability tend to follow the same script: deny, deflect, and hope the public loses interest.
Governor Lamont issued a statement Thursday that left no room for ambiguity.
"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."
State Attorney General William Tong was equally direct. He called Diamantis's disappearance "a shameful insult to every person in Connecticut" and vowed it would "not deter our efforts to fully protect the state's interest and taxpayer dollars."
Connecticut officials moved Thursday to stop Diamantis's state pension payments, a step that, if completed, would cut off one financial lifeline for a man who just fled the country to avoid prison. The details of how far that process has gone remain unclear.
The larger problem is getting Diamantis back. Greek courts have upheld the principle that extradition of Greek nationals is forbidden. That means a convicted American felon who holds Greek citizenship can, in practical terms, flee to Greece and remain beyond the reach of the federal sentence he earned. Whether U.S. authorities have formally initiated an extradition request is not yet known, but the legal landscape favors Diamantis on this point, and he appears to have known it.
Diamantis's legal troubles do not end with this case. He faces a second pending criminal case in federal court, where he is accused of taking bribes to quash a state audit of an eye doctor accused of Medicaid fraud. That case, too, now sits in limbo with the defendant on another continent.
Diamantis was not a minor functionary. He served as Connecticut's deputy budget director and as a Democratic state representative before taking the helm of the Office of School Construction Grants and Review. That office controlled the flow of multimillion-dollar contracts, public money meant to build and repair schools for Connecticut's children. Instead, Diamantis treated the position as a personal revenue stream.
The bribery ran for three years, from 2018 to 2021, under the administration of a sitting Democratic governor. When accountability finally arrived in the form of a federal conviction, Diamantis responded not by accepting the jury's verdict but by obtaining a second passport and charting a route out of the country that took him through three jurisdictions before landing in one that would not send him back. Stories of figures facing consequences and trying to avoid scrutiny are not new, but few involve this level of premeditation.
His defense attorney argued for zero prison time. Prosecutors wanted a decade or more. The judge will now proceed on September 30, and Diamantis may be sentenced in absentia, a rare outcome that underscores how thoroughly he has abandoned any pretense of respect for the system he once served.
Diamantis told reporters after his conviction that he was afraid to go to prison. His 10-page email to Pattis cast him as a man destroyed by political persecution. But a jury heard his defense, weighed the evidence, and found him guilty. The system he now calls unjust is the same one that gave him a trial, a lawyer, and the right to testify in his own behalf.
He answered that system by boarding a boat in the middle of the night and heading for a country that will not send him back. When people with connections and dual passports can simply flee across borders to dodge legal consequences, ordinary citizens are right to ask who the justice system actually works for.
Connecticut taxpayers funded the school contracts Diamantis corrupted, paid his salary, and will now pay for his pension, unless the state finishes cutting it off. They deserved a public official who treated their money honestly. What they got was a man who took bribes, lost at trial, and ran.
If a convicted felon can flee the country and park himself beyond extradition, the sentence on September 30 is just words on paper. And that is exactly what Diamantis is counting on.
