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Image capture Dec 2022 from Google Maps. Pictured is the Dorchester, MA location of Stash's Pizza, which was one of a pizzeria chain owned by Westwood resident Stavros Papantoniadis.
4-11-2025 10:37pm
Westwood Owner of Boston Area Pizzerias Sentenced to Two Years in Prison for Defrauding U.S. Small Business Administration
Darlene Cancell
Editor
After Westwood resident Stavros Papantoniadis pled guilty in February to a charge of one count of false statements, a federal district court on April 2nd sentenced Mr. Papantoniadis to two years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, and ordered him to pay $534,462 in restitution.
Six months of this recent sentence will run consecutively with Mr. Papantoniadis' 102-month sentence that the court handed down to him in October 2024. That 8.5 year sentence stemmed from a federal jury convicting Mr. Papantoniadis in June 2024 of three counts of forced labor and three counts of attempted forced labor.
In the case of making false statements, Mr. Papantoniadis, owner and operator of the Boston area chain of pizzerias called Stash’s Pizza, was found to have obtained a U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) loan on behalf of a pizzeria in Randolph, MA that he had already sold. A press release for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts states that between November 2021 and January 2022, Mr. Papantoniadis applied for a SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan for the Randolph pizzeria, even though it was several months after he had sold the business. He claimed that he still owned and operated the Randolph pizzeria and staffed it with 18 employees. As a result of the loan application, SBA approved and sent Mr. Papantoniadis a loan in the amount of $499,900.
The SBA loan was intended to provide relief to small businesses that were suffering economic injury from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the earlier case of forced labor, Mr. Papantoniadis was determined to have forced five men and one woman to work for him by violent physical abuse, and to have threatened to report the workers to immigration authorities for deportation.
Along with the Randolph pizzeria that Mr. Papantoniadis sold, he has owned a Stash's Pizza in Dorchester and Roslindale and previously owned pizzerias in Norwood, Norwell, Weymouth (Pacini’s Italian Eatery) and Wareham. Current management of the Stash's Pizza in Norwood has for many months now displayed a disclaimer on the business' website that states, "Stash's Pizza of Norwood is separately owned and is not affiliated with any other locations." It notes that it has been separately owned since May 2019.
