The owner of a chain of Massachusetts pizzerias was recently sentenced to more than eight years in prison after being convicted of forced labor charges in Boston federal court.

Stavros "Steve" Papantoniadis, 49, of Westwood, was convicted in June on three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor. Prosecutors said he threatened and physically abused six undocumented workers at his pizza shops around the Boston area.

He was sentenced on Friday to 102 months in prison, one year of supervised release and ordered to pay a $35,000 fine.

According to evidence introduced at trial, Papantoniadis thinly staffed his pizza shops and purposely employed workers without immigration status to work behind the scenes for 14 or more hours per day and as many as seven days per week.


Federal prosecutors said when Papantoniadis learned that one victim planned to quit, he violently choked him, causing that victim to flee the pizza shop and run to safety in the parking lot.


According to prosecutors, when another worker tried to leave and drive away from one of Papantoniadis’ pizza shops, Papantoniadis chased the victim down Route 1 and falsely reported the victim to the local police in an effort to pressure the victim to return to work at the pizza shop.

Papantoniadis is the owner and operator of Stash’s Pizza, a chain of pizzerias which has locations in Dorchester and Roslindale, and previously had pizzerias in Norwood, Norwell, Randolph (doing business as Boston Pizza Company), Weymouth (doing business as Pacini’s Italian Eatery) and Wareham, Mass.