Kosta Diamantis Rejects Plea Deal in Second Bribery Case

Konstantinos Diamantis walked into U.S. District Court in Bridgeport on Monday expecting to accept a plea deal. He left without one.

Diamantis, 69, the former state deputy budget director already convicted of 21 counts of bribery and extortion, rejected a plea offer in a second federal corruption case and will likely face trial on charges that he helped a Bristol eye doctor dodge a state audit in exchange for nearly $100,000 in bribes.

The hearing before Judge Stefon Underhill had been scheduled as a routine change-of-plea proceeding. Instead, Diamantis’ attorney Norm Pattis and federal prosecutors retreated to chambers with the judge, and the courtroom cleared shortly after.

“We will be filing a motion to continue to trial,” Pattis said outside court. “That’s really all I can say.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Novick, asked whether the case was headed to trial, said, “That seems likely.” Novick did not discuss details of the plea offer.

The original trial date of April 27 will likely be postponed while attorneys work out a new schedule with the court.

What the second case alleges

The current charges center on a scheme involving Bristol eye doctor Helen Zervas. Prosecutors allege that Diamantis used his influence as a senior official to pressure state Department of Social Services staff to drop a 2020 audit into Zervas’ Medicaid and Medicare billing practices. The price, according to federal prosecutors, was nearly $100,000 in bribes paid by Zervas to Diamantis.

Zervas has already pleaded guilty. So has former state Rep. Christopher Ziogas, a long-time associate of Diamantis from Bristol who prosecutors say also participated in the payments. Both are expected to serve as key witnesses at trial.

Some of the highest-ranking figures from Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration could be called to testify, according to CT Mirror, including former Office of Policy and Management Secretary Melissa McCaw and former Department of Social Services Commissioner Diedre Gifford. Their potential testimony would put the corruption allegations squarely inside the machinery of state government at the highest levels.

The first conviction

Diamantis was convicted last year on 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators. That case arose from his role as head of the state’s Office of School Construction Grants and Review, where he steered lucrative contracts to the owners of Acranom Masonry on school projects in Tolland, Hartford and New Britain. Federal prosecutors used text messages, bank records and emails to show how Diamantis negotiated payments, hounded contractors for money and threatened to pull them from jobs if they didn’t pay. More than $75,000 in bribes changed hands.

That conviction already carries serious federal sentencing exposure. A second conviction would compound it substantially.

The federal investigations into Diamantis began nearly five years ago, sparked by a subpoena seeking school construction records in October 2021. What started as a records request eventually unraveled two separate corruption schemes touching school construction, state health audits and the inner workings of the budget office.

What to watch

The decision to reject a plea and go to trial is a significant gamble. Diamantis has two cooperating witnesses against him in the Zervas case, a paper trail in the first conviction that federal prosecutors have already proved to a jury, and the prospect of former senior Lamont administration officials taking the stand.

Connecticut residents who followed the first trial in Bridgeport watched prosecutors use straightforward documentary evidence, including texts where Diamantis threatened contractors, to secure guilty verdicts on all 21 counts. The U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut will now handle scheduling discussions with both sides before setting a new trial date.

For anyone tracking how state contracting and social services oversight actually function, this case cuts to the center of those questions. Diamantis controlled two significant levers of state government, one that directed hundreds of millions of dollars in school construction money, and one with access to the social services audit process. Prosecutors have argued he used both for personal gain.

A new trial date has not been set. Pattis’ motion to continue is expected to be filed soon, and the court will schedule the case from there.