Multi million theft from the Sentry Armored Car

One defendant was 41-year-old Nicholas Gregory of Queens, who was a fugitive for two years until he was arrested last September on a drunken-driving charge on Long Island. Another defendant, Gerassimos Vinieris, known as ''Captain Mike,'' was convicted of making false statements and transporting stolen money. He is 35 years old and lives in Hackensack, N.J. The authorities found $169,000 in his apartment and $550,000 in his bank accounts, all said to come from the Sentry theft. The third defendant, Howard Marshall, 35, of Rockville Centre, L.I., was acquitted of conspiracy and perjury. He owned a Manhattan jewelry store where the authorities found $20,000 of cash traced to the Sentry theft. In the first trial, which Judge Weinfeld conducted in the same court in 1983, three men were convicted. One of them testified for the prosecution in the second trial in the hope of obtaining an early release from prison.

Results of First Trial The convicted man who testified was Eddie Argitakos, 25, a Queens accountant who operated a travel agency. Mr. Argitakos, described by the judge as the mastermind of the theft, had been sentenced to 15 years in prison. Testifying in the second trial, Mr. Argitakos said he and three associates in the theft had divided more than $7 million in cash and discarded the rest, which consisted of checks, receipts and food stamps. He said about half of the stolen cash, including most of his share, had disappeared after it was given to others to take to Switzerland. The prosecution contended that Mr. Vinieris had taken much of the missing money, which was supposed to be concealed in secret Swiss bank accounts. Mr. Argitakos's father, Steve Argitakos of Queens, was convicted in the first trial of helping to hide some of the stolen money in this country. He was sentenced to four years. Christos Potamitis, 25, of Queens, was also convicted in the first trial. Mr. Potamitis, the Sentry guard on duty at the time of the theft, was accused of being the ''inside man'' who pretended that three masked gunmen had carried out a robbery. He was sentenced to 15 years. A fourth defendant in the first trial, Demetrious Papadakis, was acquitted of participation in the theft. Mr. Papadakis, 36, of Miami, was known as ''Jimmy Pappas.''

Three men, including a father and son, were sentenced to prison terms on Federal charges involving the theft of $11 million in 1982 from the Sentry Armored Courier Corporation in the Bronx. In imposing the sentences, Judge Edward Weinfeld said the theft of $11 million in cash, checks and food stamps was ''a crime of greed'' that had been ''coolly planned.'' Most of the theft involved cash, only about $1 million of it was recovered, and Sentry went out of business. Judge Weinfeld, noting that most of the money was still missing, described it as ''a substantial amount even in these days of inflation.'' He added that the defendants had ''stonewalled'' about the missing money in the hope of enjoying it later.