NY Millionaires arrested for alleged slavery....

[bliss_eternal]

N.Y. millionaires arrested for alleged slavery
Couple charged with abusing two Indonesian women in their swanky home


Updated: 7:29 p.m. PT May 16, 2007
MINEOLA, N.Y. - A millionaire couple was arrested on federal charges that they kept two Indonesian women as slaves in their swank Long Island home for more than five years, beating and abusing them and paying them almost nothing.

Authorities uncovered the alleged abuse after one of the women was found by police wandering outside a doughnut shop Sunday morning wearing only pants and a towel.

The homeowners, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 35, and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, entered not guilty pleas Tuesday at their arraignment in U.S. District Court in Central Islip and were ordered held pending a Thursday bail hearing.

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Prosecutors said the women had scalding water thrown on them and were forced to repeatedly climb up and down stairs and take as many as 30 showers in three hours — all as punishment for perceived misdeeds. In one case, prosecutors said, one woman was forced to eat 25 hot chili peppers at a time.

One woman told authorities she was cut behind her ears with a pocket knife and both were forced to sleep on mats in the kitchen. They were fed so little, they claimed, they were forced to steal food and hide it from their captors.

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A federal complaint alleged the couple, who live in East Muttontown, a tony community on Long Island's north shore, kept the two women in their home as domestic servants, barring them from leaving the house for any reason other than to take trash to the curb. The couple ran a perfume business out of their multimillion-dollar home and have factories in Asia, authorities said.

They also have a residence in Manhattan and $1.8 million in the bank, prosecutors said.

The two women, identified in court papers as Samirah and Nona, said they were promised payments of $200 and $100 a month, but federal prosecutors said they were never given money directly. One of the victims' daughters living in Indonesia was sent $100 a month, prosecutors said.

The women legally arrived in the United States in 2002; the Sabhnanis then confiscated their passports and refused to let them leave their home, authorities said.

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taken from:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18710078/

[ThomCat]

1. I don't care how rich they are, if this is true then

they need to loose everything and spend time in jail. x(

[bliss_eternal]

2. Absolutely...

Isn't it interesting how money changes everything? How the same rationalizations are made for those with money."....upstanding members of the community, blah, blah." :eyes:

Why does any of that matter when they've held these poor women captive? :grr::mad: