Christopher Ziogas, a former State Representative from Bristol, Connecticut, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges related to interfering with a state audit of a Medicaid provider and committing bank fraud.
According to information presented in court, the events took place between January and June 2020. During this period, Ziogas was involved in a scheme where Konstantinos Diamantis, who served as a senior official at the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management (OPM), received corrupt payments and benefits from Helen Zervas—Ziogas’s fiancée and owner of Family Eye Care in Bristol. These payments were made in exchange for actions concerning an audit by the Department of Social Services (DSS) into Medicaid overbilling by Zervas and her business.
The DSS had notified Zervas in January 2020 that it would conduct an audit of her Medicaid billing. Knowing she had overbilled Medicaid for services either not provided or not medically necessary, Zervas asked Ziogas for help stopping the audit. Ziogas then turned to Diamantis for assistance. In return for bribes from Ziogas and Zervas, Diamantis took steps to influence state officials handling the DSS audit.
On March 4, 2020, Ziogas paid $20,000 to Diamantis as a bribe; on March 12 he made another payment of $10,000. Both times he was reimbursed by Zervas through checks from Family Eye Care. After these actions—including pressure applied by Diamantis directly or indirectly through OPM and DSS officials—the DSS cancelled its audit and accepted a settlement offer from Zervas on May 1, 2020.
Later that month, Ziogas and Diamantis delivered a settlement check for $599,810 from Family Eye Care to DSS. On May 15, Ziogas made one final bribe payment of $65,000 to Diamantis via Zervas.
During the investigation by federal agents into these activities, Ziogas made false statements.
In addition to these offenses involving public corruption and health care fraud interference, authorities said that Ziogas also committed bank fraud while acting as trustee of a client trust identified as “Trust-1.” In November 2019 he prepared and negotiated a check from Trust-1 payable to Diamantis for $5,500.
Ziogas pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right (maximum sentence: 20 years), making false statements (up to five years), and bank fraud (up to 30 years). He is currently free on $500,000 bond pending sentencing scheduled for February 18 before U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill in Bridgeport.
Helen Zervas previously pleaded guilty on related charges and awaits sentencing. Konstantinos Diamantis has been indicted; his trial is set for January 30 in Bridgeport. The U.S. Attorney’s Office emphasized that an indictment is only an accusation until proven otherwise: "Charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."
The case is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) along with the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan N. Francis and Paul A. Riley are prosecuting.
