Federal School Construction Criminal Investigation Escalates in Hartford.

The growing federal school construction corruption scandal of the Lamont administration appears to have expanded to Hartford. A grand jury is expected to hear testimony next week on the financial details of the $149 million Bulkeley High School renovation project.

Federal investigators have been seeking documents from Hartford officials. Their interest appears to have intensified recently. Hartford officials hired Construction Advocacy Professionals (CAP) as an owner representative on the Bulkeley project. CAP, owned by Antonietta Roy, was expected to be paid close to $2 million in fees while sharing oversight responsibilities with another firm. Hartford receives reimbursement of 95% of its school construction costs from the state. State officials informed Hartford last month that it would no longer reimburse it for CAP charges. The city then terminated its generous arrangement with CAP.

Roy appears to have been a favorite of former school construction division head and deputy budget director Kostantinos Diamantis, who left state government in late October. Tolland officials disclosed earlier this month that Diamantis had told them in 2019 that their Birch Grove Primary School construction project would be in jeopardy if they did not hire CAP and D’Amato Construction, a Bristol company that had never built a school before. D’Amato became the lead construction company on the $46 million project and CAP made $530,000 for duties that the town had previously performed itself.

Roy hired Anastasia Diamantis, Kostantinos Diamantis’s daughter, at CAP while Ms. Diamantis continued to work full-time in a state job.

The investigation continues.

Published February 24, 2022.