A man who spent more than two decades as managing partner of Milwaukee's Five O'Clock Steakhouse has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison for crimes involving two 16-year-old girls. Stelio Kalkounos pleaded guilty to receiving child sex abuse material on May 13, 2026, and a federal judge handed down the sentence after describing his conduct as cruel and predatory.
Kalkounos was the former managing partner of Five O'Clock Steakhouse for more than 20 years, according to a report from Spectrum News. Prosecutors said he met one 16-year-old girl at hotels in Racine County, paying her to engage in sexual activity during 2022 and 2023. He met a second 16-year-old online, paid her for explicit images and videos, and then met her at Madison hotels for commercial sex over a five-month stretch, per the same report.
U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson, who handed down the sentence, called Kalkounos' crimes “very disturbing.” The judge said Kalkounos pressured the survivors to perform sex acts they did not want to do and treated them cruelly, according to Spectrum News.
Indictment Detailed Months of Alleged Trafficking
The case traces back to an indictment that charged Kalkounos with sex trafficking a minor and producing child pornography, as reported by WISN. That indictment alleged the trafficking conduct occurred from July 16, 2023, to March 1, 2024. Kalkounos entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment on July 3, 2024, and was ordered detained, according to federal court records reviewed on CourtListener.
Investigators built part of their case around hotel records. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Kalkounos booked a DoubleTree hotel room in his own name five times between August 23 and December 18, 2023, with the stays corresponding to payments made to one of the girls. The Milwaukee restaurant scene had long known Kalkounos through his decades-long role at the steakhouse, according to the WTMJ report that first brought renewed attention to the sentencing.
Not His First Federal Sex Crime Case
This is not the first time Kalkounos has faced federal prosecution for sex crimes involving a minor. In 2006, he was sentenced in federal court in Milwaukee to 46 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release after traveling across state lines to have sex with a minor, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune at the time.
Federal prosecutors confirmed the 18-year sentence in a statement, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. The office's announcement affirms the length of the term handed down against Kalkounos for commercial child sexual exploitation.
