Diamantis investigation: What we know and don’t know
A political firestorm that began last fall when a columnist and former lawmaker started questioning hiring practices at the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office has erupted into a full-blown scandal that has cost two prominent state officials their jobs over the last few months.
At the center is a former budget official in Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration, Konstantinos “Kosta” Diamantis, who was also in charge of an office that handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in grants and reimbursements for school construction.
Soon after the first signs of trouble arose in October, Lamont fired Diamantis from his job as Deputy Secretary at the Office of Policy and Management and suspended him from his job at the school construction office, prompting Diamantis to quit instead.
The governor also ordered an investigation into Diamantis and his dealings with the chief state’s attorney, Richard Colangelo, who was seeking approval from Diamantis and his bosses for raises.
When that probe’s findings were published earlier this month, the results were inconclusive, though it still prompted Colangelo to announce his early retirement. At the same time, it was revealed that a larger federal investigation is looking into potential criminal wrongdoing.
There are multiple story lines that intersect at various points, making it a difficult controversy to follow — especially when the new information seems to come out every day.
Here is a list of what we know, and don’t know, about the evolving scandal:
What We Know
Earlier this month, the controversy swirling around
Diamantis reached new proportions when it was revealed that federal authorities are investigating construction contracts he oversaw as head of the Office of School Construction Grants and Review.
That investigation was made public when the Lamont administration released to several news organizations copies of a subpoena it received last October from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Haven.
In that subpoena and subsequent letters, investigators ordered state officials to hand over records related to Diamantis' work on several school construction projects — including those in Hartford, New Britain, Bristol, Tolland and Manchester — as well as the ongoing re-development of the State Pier in New London.
In follow-up letters sent to state officials, federal investigators also listed the names of more than a dozen construction companies, demolition contractors and consultants to serve as a “guide” for state officials seeking records pertinent to the federal investigation.
With that investigation underway, Republicans leaders in the General Assembly have called for public hearings on the matter, while Lamont has said he is focused on restoring oversight of the school construction office under new leadership.
“We are cooperating in any way that we can to make sure that people have confidence that these school projects are going forward with integrity,” Lamont said this week.
What We Don’t Know
The subpoena records do not specify what potential crimes authorities are seeking to uncover, and which people or companies are targets of the investigation and which may simply have access to relevant information.
There is certainly a criminal nature to the probe, as state officials were instructed to send relevant records to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s offices in Meriden. The FBI does not investigate civil matters.
Diamantis has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing while his attorney, Norm Pattis, has said that federal authorities have not requested to speak with Diamantis.
“There was and there is not any abuse of school construction in any way,'' Diamantis told Hearst Connecticut Media this week.
Neither the FBI nor the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, Leonard Boyle, have commented on the matter, as is typical of ongoing investigations.
What We Know
Before it was revealed that Diamantis was at the center of a federal investigation, he was already facing public allegations of nepotism over the fact that his daughter, Anastasia, was hired by two people who Diamantis regularly did work with.
The first of those allegations involved Colangelo, the chief state’s attorney who hired Anastasia Diamantis as an executive assistant in June 2020. Her job at the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office paid $99,000, within the normal salary range for executive assistants but a nearly 50 percent increase over what she had been earning as a clerk for another state agency, according to the investigative report published about her hiring.
At the same time Colangelo hired Anastasia Diamantis, he was lobbying her father and other officials at the Office of Policy and Management to approve salary increases for himself and other top prosecutors around the state.
Colangelo continued to push for the salary increases well after Anastasia was hired, arguing that they were needed to help recruit qualified attorneys to managerial roles at the Division of Criminal Justice.
In a December 2020 email to Diamantis, however, he suggested an ulterior motive for the raises, writing “Might need it to keep them happy so they don’t oppose me at reappointment.”
Anastasia Diamantis also worked part-time for Construction Advocacy Professionals, a project management company based in Moosup that worked on multiple school construction projects that Diamantis’ office was involved in.
While Colangelo is not mentioned in any of the subpoena records, the follow-up letters in which federal investigators sought to narrow the scope of their request specifically mention both Anastasia Diamantis and CAP, as well as the firm’s owner Antonietta DiBenedetto-Roy.
What We Don’t Know
After Lamont caught wind of the nepotism allegations surrounding Anastasia Diamantis’ hiring at the chief state’s attorney’s office, he commissioned former U.S. Attorney Stanley Twardy to conduct a full investigation into the matter.
Twardy’s report, released earlier this month, was unable to determine the exact circumstances surrounding Anastasia’s hiring, leaving an open question of whether Diamantis was involved in his daughter’s hiring, or if it was part of a quid-pro-quo.
To be certain, both Colangelo and Diamantis deny working together to land Anastasia the job at Colangelo’s office.
In multiple interviews, Diamantis has pointed to his daughter’s accomplishments — she has a master’s degree and more than five years of experience working in state government — to argue that she did not need his help getting a job. Diamantis also notes that he and his bosses repeatedly denied the raises that Colangelo sought.
Colangelo said he first met Anastasia Diamantis at a “Greek Night” event in Southington in the early summer of 2020, and asked her to apply for a job in his office after being impressed by her background.
Twardy’s report, however, questioned that narrative after investigators spoke to other officials who said the Greek Night event occurred in either July or August, after Anastasia had been hired by Colangelo.
Another official who spoke to Twardy’s investigators recalled being handed Anastasia’s resume by Colangelo, who allegedly pointed to her surname and said “look at the name.”
“Based on the available evidence, we do not find credible the largely consistent accounts of Mr. Colangelo, Anastasia, and Mr. Diamantis concerning how Mr. Colangelo and Anastasia first met,” Twardy’s report stated.
When asked how she landed the part-time job at CAP, Anastasia Diamantis allegedly told Twardy’s investigators that the company contacted her “out of the blue,” to offer her the job.
After her name appeared in news reports questioning her hiring at Colangelo’s office, CAP fired Anastasia to avoid the negative publicity, according to the Twardy report. Earlier this month, she was placed on paid leave from her job in the chief state’s attorney's office pending a review of the allegations.
Anastasia Diamantis has not responded to requests for comment surrounding either job. The owner of CAP has also not commented on the matter.
What We Know
In the wake of the news of the federal investigation into the school construction office, multiple officials have come forward alleging that Diamantis pressured them to give jobs to specific contractors.
One of the first was Tolland Superintendent Walter Willet, who released a statement to the Hartford Courant last week alleging that town and school officials “felt they had no real choice,” in selecting CAP and another firm, D’Amato Construction, to supervise a school construction project, after Diamantis told officials that the project would likely face delays and extra costs if they went with other firms.
Tolland was soon followed by officials in New Britain, where Mayor Erin Stewark described a similar pattern of pressure by Diamantis to have school officials hire CAP as a consultant on multiple projects.
“Kostas told us that if we wanted to make sure we got our money back, that we should hire this company to do the work for us,” Stewart told Hearst this week.
Similar stories have since popped up in Hartford, as well as in Groton and Bristol, where officials told the CT Mirror that low-bidders for demolition work were replaced by firms on a prequalified list of contractors, due to directives from Diamantis.
Three of the four companies on that pre-qualified list were named in the subpoena letters from federal authorities.
Diamantis said that it was ultimately up to the school districts, not his office, to select contractors to work on specific projects, but that he sought to encourage officials to use companies that he believed would save money.