Former Office of Policy and Management (OPM) Deputy Secretary Kosta Diamantis, currently facing federal corruption charges, claims he has been targeted with “thuggish and inconsistent” legal tactics by the U.S. Attorney’s Office to divert attention away from Gov. Ned Lamont’s involvement in COVID testing contracts awarded to Sema 4, a company that was funded by Annie Lamont’s venture capital firm.
“Attention was diverted to Mr. Diamantis, one of the state’s top officials in monitoring state spending, at or about the time serious questions emerged regarding the governor’s wife, who is a partner of a powerful hedge fund,” Diamantis’s attorney Norm Pattis wrote to United States Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, III in a February 14 letter. “That hedge fund invested in a company called Sema 4 on at least two occasions during the COVID 19 pandemic in 2020. Under the guise of a public health emergency declared by the governor, Sema 4 entered into two contracts with the state, one of which was a no-bid contract for COVID-19 testing products.”
“Mr. Diamantis raised concerns about the propriety of the contracts, after being alerted to them by members of his staff,” the letter continues. “Gov. Lamont hired a man who had previously been a beneficiary of Mrs. Lamont’s hedge fund investments to serve as chief operating officer; this man had oversight over the Sema 4 contracts.”
At the time, Josh Geballe served as COO for Lamont. Annie Lamont’s venture capital firm, Oak HC/FT, had previously invested in Geballe’s company, Core Informatics.
The letter goes on to claim that Helen Zervas, an optometrist who pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud and public corruption charges related to Medicaid billing, is being used to pressure Diamantis into a plea deal. Zervas is engaged to former State Rep. Chris Ziogas, D-Bristol, and Ziogas is a relative to Diamantis, according to the letter.
Zervas was facing a state audit into Medicaid payments made to her practice in 2020 and arranged through Ziogas and Diamantis to deliver a $600,000 check to the Department of Social Services (DSS) as restitution for Medicaid over-billing, whereupon the audit was ceased. According to CT Mirror, Zervas testified she paid a $95,000 payment to two co-conspirators to get DSS to drop the audit.
“[Zervas] is believed to have entered into a cooperation agreement to testify against Mr. Diamantis, and, potentially her fiancé,” Pattis writes. “What is stunning, however, is the office’s suggestion that unless and until Mr. Diamantis enters a plea, it will pursue the Medicaid case and will seek to involve his family and those whom he loves in the investigation.”
Pattis refers to “gubernatorial players” who are “married to senior Justice Department officials,” and asks that Bove appoint an “independent counsel to review this bizarre prosecution and to find out just why the governor’s office has spent such time and resources seeking to influence a federal investigation.”
Diamantis originally came under scrutiny following a 2021 column in the Hartford Courant claiming that his daughter was hired as an executive assistant to Chief State’s Attorney Richard Colangelo. Lamont ordered an independent investigation by attorney Stanley Twardy, which revealed Colangelo sought increased funding for his agency from Diamantis.
The federal investigation then expanded to school construction grants, alleging Diamantis, who oversaw those grants, accepted bribes to steer construction projects toward preferred vendors.
Diamantis, a former state legislator and long-time state official with the Department of Administrative Services before he transferred to OPM, was arrested in 2024 and charged on 22 counts. Diamantis maintains his innocence, but the investigation encompassed a broad swath of state government through Diamantis’s connections and the various projects he oversaw, including the scandal-plagued State Pier.
Lamont, however, came under criticism for granting Sema 4 state contracts in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. Annie Lamont’s venture capital firm had invested in Sema 4 and, presumably, stood to benefit from the contracts. The Office of State Ethics, however, ruled the contracts did not violate state ethics, and Lamont pledged profits would be donated to charity.
Similar to Diamantis’ influence and reach touching a wide array of government officials, lawmakers, and projects, Lamont’s influence reaches into the DOJ — alluded to in Pattis’s letter as “suggesting potential conflicts.”
Former U.S. District Attorney Nora Dannehy was Lamont’s general counsel before Lamont nominated her to the Connecticut Supreme Court. Dannehy is married to former acting U.S. District Attorney Leonard Boyle who served from 2021 to 2022. Similarly, former U.S. District Attorney Diedre Daly represented Annie Lamont’s investment firm and was tapped by Gov. Lamont for a $550,000 independent investigation into ticketing irregularities by the CT State Police. Daly is married to First Assistant U.S. Attorney Alfred U. Pavlis.
While Boyle and Pavlis were the only attorneys working for the DOJ during the investigation of Diamantis, neither appear on any court documents contained in Diamantis’ or Zervas’ case.
Pattis did not return requests for comment but could be banking on President Donald Trump’s revamping of the DOJ to divert the federal government’s focus from his client to a Democrat governor who, as Pattis notes, “is contemplating a third term in office.” Bove served as a federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District before representing Trump as his defense attorney in the “hush money,” case.
As acting deputy attorney general, Bove manages the day-to-day operations of the DOJ, and recently ordered the firing of all prosecutors “who had been hired on a probationary basis to work on Jan. 6-related cases,” according to Reuters. U.S. District Attorney for Connecticut Vanessa Roberts Avery, a President Joe Biden appointee who was prosecuting the case against Diamantis, announced her resignation on January 6. Marc H. Silverman is currently serving as acting U.S. Attorney.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is in excellent hands,” Avery said in a press release. “Marc and the Office’s superb supervisory team have the highest professional and ethical standards and, together with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners will ensure that the administration of justice will seamlessly continue in our District.”
“In more than 30 years of practice, I have never heard such a threat from the Justice Department,” Pattis wrote regarding federal prosecutors pressuring Diamantis to strike a deal. “It is thuggish and inconsistent with the DOJ’s commitment to enforce the law fairly and with integrity.”
Lamont is currently on a trip to India. The Office of the Governor did not return request for comment.
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Boyle signed the original subpoena against Diamantis several yrs ago .
The Twardy hearing was far from independent as Nora Dannehy was sitting across the table from and communicating with him. They were partners at Day, Pitney together.
Twardy referred to her / Husband Boyle as “Ct. Power couple” on line somewhere.
Yet another instance of the connections between various people to benefit from government spending disguised from public view. I firmly believe that Gov Lamont is being groomed by the Democrat party to run for President in 2028.