extradition of Greek nationals<\/a> is forbidden. <\/p>\nAuthorities and Diamantis’ lawyer, Norman Pattis, did not say when Diamantis left the U.S. <\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors said he traveled by boat from Florida to the Bahamas, then boarded a plane to London. They said that although Diamantis had surrendered his U.S. passport, he obtained a Greek passport. Pattis said he was told by Diamantis during a phone call Wednesday night that he was in Greece and would not be attending the sentencing.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill set a new sentencing date for Sept. 30 that would go forward with or without Diamantis in attendance.<\/p>\n
Connecticut officials were quick Thursday to condemn Diamantis for fleeing the country and took steps to stop his state pension payments.<\/p>\n
\u201cKosta Diamantis betrayed the public\u2019s trust and needs to be held accountable for his actions,\u201d the governor said in a statement. \u201cHis repeated efforts to skirt justice are shameful. I hope he is apprehended and made to face the music as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
State Attorney General William Tong, also a Democrat, added in a statement, \u201cHis disappearance this morning is a shameful insult to every person in Connecticut and will not deter our efforts to fully protect the state\u2019s interest and taxpayer dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors asked the judge to send Diamantis to prison for 10 to 12 years, while Pattis argued in court documents for a sentence that included no prison time but strict conditions of release.<\/p>\n
After the court hearing, the defense attorney told reporters that he was surprised that Diamantis fled the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d he said. \u201cSo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pattis provided copies of the email Diamantis sent to him to media outlets.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe injustice that has occurred to me and my family by political weaponization is beyond rational belief,\u201d Diamantis wrote in the email. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he hopes President Donald Trump and the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Washington would take a look at his case. Diamantis claimed Lamont used \u201cthe power of his office and his powerful friendship with President Biden to create an insular system of justice\u201d aimed at protecting the governor’s own wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Diamantis has another pending criminal case in federal court, where he’s accused of taking bribes to quash a state audit of an eye doctor accused of Medicaid fraud.<\/p>\n
In the school construction grants case, Diamantis was convicted of using his position as director of the state\u2019s Office of School Construction Grants and Review to demand and ultimately receive thousands of dollars in bribes from contractors to steer building contracts their way, from 2018 to 2021.<\/p>\n
He was accused of threatening to terminate those contracts if he wasn\u2019t paid.<\/p>\n
During the trial, witnesses testified about handing Diamantis envelopes of cash at various locations, including a men\u2019s room at an upscale restaurant, a doughnut shop and his home. Some payments were referred to in messages as \u201cbirthday cards,\u201d \u201cpars\u201d and \u201cbirdies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diamantis, who testified in his own defense, admitted that he received the money but insisted it was legitimate consulting income.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former senior budget official for Connecticut’s Democratic governor is now a fugitive in Greece after fleeing the U.S. by boat and plane ahead of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":361069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8797,8028,11308,2697,36743,433,762,36746,609,36745,36744],"class_list":["post-361066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-biden","tag-bridgeport","tag-democratic-governor","tag-governor","tag-kosta-diamantis","tag-media-retailers","tag-official","tag-pattis","tag-president","tag-stefan-underhill","tag-watch-physician"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361066"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":361068,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361066\/revisions\/361068"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.etrafficlane.com\/60dollarmiracle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}