LAWFUEL – The Law News Wire – An indictment handed down in the US District Court charged a millionaire couple Tuesday night formally with two counts of forced labor and added two counts of harboring illegal residents.
The slavery charges related to the accusation that the couple kept
two Indonesian women as slaves in their luxurious Long Island home and abusing them for years.
Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 35, and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, operate a worldwide perfume business out of their home, contracting with overseas factories to manufacture the fragrances.
The two were arrested last week after one of their servants was found wandering outside a doughnut shop on Long Island, wearing only pants and a towel. The woman was believed to have fled the home in Muttontown, a tony community on Long Island’s north shore, when she took the trash out the night before.
The couple pleaded not guilty and a magistrate judge set bail at $3.5 million and imposed home detention with electronic monitoring.
