labor lawAdivision of labor law center

A wealthy New York couple have been found guilty of slavery and could face sentences of up to 40 years in jail.

On December 17, a jury convicted Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45 and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, of slavery in a bizarre incident involving the couple’s two housekeeper. In addition, the couple was found guilty of forced labor, conspiracy, and harboring aliens. 

According to prosecutors, the couple used psychological and physical abuse to control the women, who worked 18 hours per day or more. The women were forced to take dozens of icy showers as punishment for minor infractions like oversleeping or misplacing an object. In addition, they were beaten, repeatedly sliced with a knife, forced to run up a flight of stairs hundreds of times. In moving testimony, one of the women testified of being forced to eat dozens of hot chili peppers. When she threw up, she was forced to eat the vomit.

The women slept on mats on the floors of the mansion’s two kitchens and were forced to hide in the basement or in closets when visitors arrived.

Prosecutors say the worst abuse was perpetuated by Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, while her husband stood by. The Sabhnanis have four children and operate an international perfume business from their home in the exclusive enclave of Muttontown, on the Gold Coast of Long Island.

Despite working 18 hours or more, 7 days per week, the women were not paid. Their “salary” of $100 to $150 per week was sent directly to relatives in Indonesia.

In May, a sobbing, bruised and battered middle-aged woman identified as “Samirah” escaped from a Long Island mansion and fled to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, where she was discovered at about dawn on Sunday. When police arrived, she wept and said, “I want to go home (to Indonesia.)” A second woman was found cowering in the closet in the palatial home.

The working conditions in the couple’s mansion were clearly violations of nearly every New York labor law.

“The conduct the defendants committed is monstrous,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Demetri Jones. “It’s truly a case of modern-day slavery.”

Both women worked as housekeepers in a home in the fabulously wealthy Long Island enclave of Muttontown, in an estate guarded by two stone lions.
According to court testimony, the two Indonesian women were kept as slaves for five years in the exclusive estate. The job became an excuse for the women to be tortured. The Sabhnanis are accused of beating, cutting and scalding the woman identified in court documents as Samirah. Among the allegations, the woman says that she was forced to walk naked from the servant’s quarters to the kitchen, and run up and down a flight of stairs 150 times or more.

The two Indonesian women legally immigrated to the U.S. with B-1 visas. They were told they would receive $200 per month. This wage is far below the New York minimum wage, which is $7.15 per hour, applies to domestic workers. The law also requires that employees be paid time-and-a-half when working more than 40 hours per week.

Based on a conservative estimate, over 5 years of working 107 hours per week for the minimum wage, each woman would have accumulated in excess of $250,000. When they were rescued, both women were penniless, although they had never been outside of the house to spend any money.

In fact, the women were given little or no money. Instead, their wages were sent to their families in Indonesia. Samirah later learned that her daughter was receiving only half of the promised wages, or $100 per month. That works out to about 68 cents per hour.  

The two housekeepers were beaten for minor transgressions including taking food or not being able to locate an item in the large mansion. The beatings were administered with rolling pins, a bamboo stick or a broomstick. The beatings often occurred in the home’s laundry room or one of the bathrooms. The prosecution notes that one woman bears prominent scars from beatings, and had deep knife wounds behind her ears when she was discovered. The defense contends that the wounds were self-inflicted.

Both women were starved, until they began hiding food. When they pilfered food from the refrigerator to eat, they were punished. The second woman, identified only as “Nona” led police to a drop ceiling panel in the kitchen where the two hid personal belongings and snacks that they could pilfer.

Both women were told that if they ever left the house, the Sabhnanis would use their wealth and influence in Indonesia to have the women, and their families, arrested.

When the family had visitors, the women were forced to hide in the basement, a closet or the garage. They were allowed to go outside only at night, to empty the garbage. It was on one of these nighttime forays that Samirah made her escape. She was dressed only in pants and a towel when the Dunkin’ Donuts manager, Adrian Mohammed, 26 found her the next morning. Thinking she was homeless, he gave her coffee, bagels and a jacket.

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