Notes on a scandal: Indictment Edition.

Paragraph 96 of the indictment in the matter of United States of America v. Kostantinos Diamantis includes an extraordinary invitation allegedly sent by Diamantis on January 9, 2021, to Salvatore Monarca and John Duffy of Acranom (Monarca spelled backwards) Masonry. The invitation was to dinner and drinks at a favorite Diamantis restaurant, Cava, located in Southington.

The purpose of the dinner, according to the invitation or command, depending on one’s point of view, was to raise the $28,000 tuition for a Diamantis daughter to continue to attend the exclusive Renbrook School in West Hartford. Diamantis, according to the indictment, told Duffy and Monarca that their checks could be made payable to him, his daughter, or Renbrook.

By January 9, 2021, Diamantis had been the state’s deputy budget director (and still the head of school construction). He held a dinner to collect $28,000 for his daughter and nobody seems to have noticed. If the invitation was a ruse to squeeze more dough out of Monarca and Duffy, Diamantis’ former brother in law, then no one else would have been invited. But if the event was held, who else was invited, attended and contributed?

The invitation to the two targets of Diamantis’ alleged extortion scheme to make their checks payable to his daughter seems reckless, putting her in danger of one day having to answer probing questions about where she got the money.

Diamantis, paragraph 84 alleges, was invited to accept a payment from Monarca in the basement of a Middletown restaurant at 5 p.m. on January 15, 2020. Not good enough. Diamantis replied, “5 pm cap grill with card[.]” That last order likely refers to someone other than Governor Ned Lamont’s deputy budget chief bringing a credit card to pick up the tab for Diamantis’ tony culinary taste.

Before that dinner, Monarca cashed an Acranom check for $5,000, “and then gave all or a portion of that cash to Diamantis,” the indictment states in paragraph 85.

Diamantis is also said to have enjoyed meeting with state contractors at Piccolo Arancia in Farmington. He was not the only state official to attend some of those dinner meetings.

Diamantis may not have reserved alleged cash drop-offs to expensive restaurants. The week began with rumors that one of the defendants who entered a guilty plea admitted to making at least one payment by putting cash in a paper bag and handing it over at a Dunkin’ Donuts. If true, the use of a crime cliché should be considered an aggravating circumstance for sentencing purposes.

Published May 17, 2024.