After fleeing the country to avoid being sentenced Thursday on federal corruption charges, Konstantinos Diamantis on Friday sued state officials who announced that they were cutting off his state pension payments.
Diamantis, who previously served as a deputy budget director in Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget office, filed a federal lawsuit against Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon and Attorney General William Tong, alleging that they illegally cut off more than $70,000 in annual pension benefits.
Connecticut law gives the Attorney General the ability to file a case in state Superior Court to either revoke or reduce a person’s pension if they are convicted of or plead guilty to “any crime related to state or municipal office in state criminal or federal criminal court.”
The Connecticut Attorney General’s office has used that law more than 30 times since 2008 to petition a judge to cut off or reduce pension payments to former public officials, including former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez and Bridgeport’s former police chief Armando Perez.
It’s not a guarantee that someone’s pension will be revoked or reduced just because the Attorney General’s office requests it. It’s up to a state judge to decide if that action is warranted. The law specifies that the judge needs to take into account multiple things, including the severity of the crime, the amount of money that was lost and the degree to which the crime violated the public trust.
Diamantis’ attorney, Norm Pattis, argued in the federal lawsuit, however, that state officials did not follow the correct process before they announced that they were revoking the pension payments for his client.
Diamantis was convicted by a federal jury last year on 21 counts of bribery, extortion, conspiracy and lying to federal investigators. He was found guilty of soliciting multiple bribes from several construction contractors that he oversaw as the head of Connecticut’s school building office.
But Pattis alleged on Friday that the jury verdict alone was not enough to cut off the payments.
“Connecticut law establishes a judicial procedure for revoking or reducing the pension of a public official convicted of specified corruption-related offenses. A jury’s guilty
verdict, standing alone, does not constitute a final judgment of conviction or automatically result in pension forfeiture,” Pattis wrote.
It wasn’t a state judge or the attorney general’s office that announced the immediate cutoff of the pension payments to Diamantis, who is also a former state Democratic lawmaker. Instead, it was Scanlon, whose office is responsible for issuing checks and making the direct deposits to state retirees.
After it was announced on Thursday morning that Diamantis fled the country, Scanlon issued a statement announcing that he was unilaterally cutting off his pension payments.
“This morning, upon confirmation that Kosta Diamantis did not appear at his sentencing and has fled the country, I have discontinued the direct deposit of his monthly pension payment. No one who has been convicted of defrauding the taxpayers and is now fleeing justice should continue receiving a pension,” Scanlon said.
The press release did not state what legal authority Scanlon was relying on in order to discontinue those payments, however. The state law that allows state or municipal pensions to be revoked doesn’t mention the comptroller’s office.
The comptroller’s office did not clarify what authority they were using to end the payments to Diamantis on Friday, but in a statement, they argued that they were within their rights to end the benefit payments.
“We are confident in our authority to determine the manner in which pension payments are issued, and we will gladly defend that authority in court on behalf of Connecticut taxpayers,” Madi Csejka, a spokeswoman for Scanlon, said.
Under the state law, it is up to the Attorney General’s office to file a motion seeking to permanently end or reduce pension payments after a conviction, but as of Friday, no such filing has been posted in state court.
Tong, who has served as Attorney General since 2019, issued a statement on Thursday acknowledging that it was up to his office to make such a filing, but the statement said Tong’s office was still reviewing its legal options.
“Kosta Diamantis abused the public trust and will be held accountable. His disappearance this morning is a shameful insult to every person in Connecticut and will not deter our efforts to fully protect the state’s interest and taxpayer dollars. State law requires that my office take action to revoke or reduce the pension of state or municipal officials convicted of corruption-related charges. We are reviewing all legal options to fully enforce the law,” the statement reads.
Without going through the proper channels, Pattis argued, Connecticut officials were violating Diamantis’ due process rights.
“Plaintiff does not seek to relitigate the jury’s guilty verdict or obtain a federal adjudication of whether his pension ultimately should be revoked or reduced. Rather, plaintiff challenges the actual or imminently threatened interruption of an existing pension entitlement without constitutionally adequate notice and an opportunity to be heard,” Pattis added.
