State ethics officials have fined Richard Colangelo Jr., Connecticut’s former chief state’s attorney, $7,000 for allegedly hiring the daughter of former state deputy budget director Konstantinos Diamantis in an effort to secure raises for himself and other state prosecutors.

The Office of State Ethics announced the settlement with Colangelo on Monday, more than three years after Colangelo retired from state service following an investigation into his relationship with Diamantis.

Colangelo, who is now serving as a lecturer at the University of New Haven, agreed to pay the civil fine but did not admit to violating the state’s ethics laws.

But state ethics officials determined that there was “probable cause” to believe Colangelo broke the state’s ethics codes by hiring Diamantis’ daughter as his executive assistant, while he was seeking pay raises for himself and others from the state’s Office of Policy and Management.

“This case reinforces the fundamental principle that state service must be free of quid pro quo arrangements,” Peter Lewandowski, the director of Office of State Ethics, said in a prepared statement. “Although the Respondent contested the Office of State Ethics’ position, the resolution reflects the seriousness of the allegations and our continued commitment to safeguarding the integrity of state government. Public trust must remain paramount.”

Colangelo did not immediately respond to an email about the settlement. Diamantis did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The allegations included in Colangelo’s settlement agreement echo the findings that were included in a nearly 40-page investigative report that was paid for by Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration in late 2021.

Lamont, who was preparing to campaign for another term as governor in 2022, hired a former federal prosecutor at the Hartford law firm Day Pitney to look into the relationship between Colangelo and Diamantis after Kevin Rennie, a columnist with The Hartford Courant, wrote an article about Diamantis’ daughter being hired.

The job that Diamantis’ daughter was selected for in 2020 paid $99,000 per year. Diamantis, who worked as a deputy in the Office of Policy and Management at the time, had influence over the state’s budget and state employee pay.

Around the same time Lamont ordered the investigation into Colangelo and Diamantis, a federal grand jury had also subpoenaed the state seeking information about Diamantis, who managed the state’s multibillion-dollar school construction program.

Diamantis, who stepped down from state service in 2021, has since been charged in two separate federal criminal cases.

He was charged in May 2024 for allegedly extorting contractors on school construction projects and then accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes from those companies. And he was charged earlier this year for allegedly accepting bribes in return for pressuring state officials to drop a Medicaid audit that was examining the billing practices of a politically connected eye doctor.