Konstantinos Diamantis, Connecticut’s former state deputy budget director, asked a judge on Friday to delay his upcoming corruption trial so that he and his attorney have time to build a defense against the federal bribery and extortion charges that are leveled against him.
But even as a judge considers that request, records show federal investigators are continuing to probe other matters that could involve Diamantis, one of the highest-ranking officials in the Connecticut state government.
A federal grand jury subpoena that was issued to the state in late October ordered the state Department of Social Services to turn over Medicaid enrollment information for a Bristol optometrist.
Attorneys handling subpoenas for the state redacted the doctor’s name and address, but sources told The Connecticut Mirror that the person named in the subpoena is Helen Zervas, the owner of Family Eye Care.
The CT Mirror published a story in early 2024 that detailed how DSS cancelled a scheduled audit of Zervas’ practice after she admitted to overbilling the state’s Medicaid program and voluntarily repaid nearly $600,000 to the state.
The check that Zervas wrote to DSS became the focus of the ongoing grand jury investigation because it was hand-delivered to DSS’s headquarters by Diamantis and former state Democratic lawmaker Christopher Ziogas, Zervas’ fiance.
In a previous interview with CT Mirror, Diamantis acknowledged that he was friends with Zervas, but he said he did not intervene in the Medicaid audit or the settlement of Zervas’ Medicaid payments.
Even so, the new subpoena indicates federal authorities are not yet done investigating Zervas and her optometry practice. It’s unclear if Diamantis could also be a target in that investigation.
The current charges against Diamantis stem from a three-year federal investigation that focused primarily on school building projects, which Diamantis held immense influence over as the head of the state’s Office of School Construction Grants & Review.
Diamantis was arrested in early May and accused of extorting several school contractors and later accepting bribes from those companies.
In the 35-page indictment, Diamantis was charged with 22 separate counts, including lying to federal investigators. Diamantis has been free on a $500,000 bond since his arrest.
His trial is supposed to start as early as February, but his attorney, Norm Pattis, filed a motion Friday asking for a delay because he is still reviewing the discovery documents federal authorities turned over to him following Diamantis’ arrest.
“Discovery in this case is massive,” Pattis explained in his motion, adding that preparation for the trial was also disrupted by the recent death of Diamantis’ mother.
Citing emails and other messages, federal prosecutors have alleged that Diamantis used his position as the head of the state’s Office of School Construction Grants and Review to strong-arm contractors into paying him a cut of the school construction contracts he helped them to win.
Federal prosecutors have already secured several guilty pleas from some of the construction contractors that allegedly paid Diamantis for steering work to their companies.
One of those contractors is Antonietta Roy, the owner of Construction Advocacy Professionals, who was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery.
The other two were Salvatore “Sal” Monarca and John Duffy, the president and vice president of Acranom Masonry, who were both charged with conspiracy to commit extortion.
All three pleaded guilty before Diamantis was indicted, but their cases were not unsealed until after Diamantis was arrested at his Farmington home on May 16.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
