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LI housekeepers held as slaves, tortured

BY ROBERT E. KESSLER | robert.kessler@newsday.com

11:03 PM EDT, May 15, 2007

A multimillionaire Muttontown couple, who run an international business distributing perfume, were arrested Tuesday by federal agents on charges of keeping two Indonesian women as slaves in their posh Long Island home for the last several years.

The couple, Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 45, and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, of 205 Coachman Place East, were accused of inflicting a catalog of tortures on one of the Indonesian women, while threatening to have the other one's family arrested in Indonesia if she did not obey orders, according to officials. The women had been hired as housekeepers.

The Sabhnanis were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Central Islip on charges under a federal anti-slavery statute of obtaining "the labor and services of another person by use of threats of serious physical harm to and physical restraint against that person."

"No one would ever think that human beings were being brought into the United States and held for slave labor, and beaten, and tortured in a beautiful mansion right here in one of the most exclusive neighborhoods on Long Island," said federal prosecutor Demetri Jones, who is prosecuting the case along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Lesko.

Attorneys for the Sabhnanis say their clients are innocent.

One of the two Indonesian women was beaten by Varsha Sabhnani with a broomstick, cut behind the ears with a knife, burnt with scalding water, made to walk up and down stairs as much as 150 times in a row, and, at one point, was forced to eat "25 extremely hot chili peppers," according to Jones and Lesko. The prosecutors submitted pictures showing what they said were the bruises and cuts inflicted on one of the women.

The reasons for the tortures included Varsha Sabhnani being unable to find an item of clothing or believing that the poorly fed women were stealing food, the prosecutors said. Her husband allowed the torture to go on and benefited from the household services of the women, according to Lesko.

The women were identified in court papers only as Samirah and Nona. Authorities became involved after Samirah, 51, was found wandering near a Dunkin' Donuts at 52 W. Jericho Tpke., Syosset, by employees early Mother's Day morning, court papers said. She was wearing pants and a towel draped around her shoulders, the papers said.

She later was questioned by agents working on the Federal Long Island Regional Human Trafficking Task Force with the aid of an Indonesian interpreter, the court papers said.

Varsha Sabhnani's attorney, Charles Ross of Manhattan, argued that his client should be released on bail because the case amounted only to a claim of assault based on the word of the two Indonesian women.

Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani's attorney, Alexandra Tseitlin of Manhattan, asked that he be released on bail, saying her client had not been accused of torturing either of the women.

Magistrate Kathleen Tomlinson held both Sabhnanis without bail pending a hearing today. If convicted, each faces a sentence of between 17 to 22 years in prison.

The two Indonesian women were told to hide in a 3-foot by 3-foot closet they shared with a storage chest when visitors came to the house, court papers said. They both entered the country on visas that had long since expired: "Samirah" five years ago and "Nona" two years ago.

The women were forced to work 21 hours a day, from 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. "seven days a week," Jones and Lesko said. The only pay "Samirah" received was $100 a month sent to her daughter in Indonesia, court papers said. It could not be learned if "Nona" received any pay.

Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani heads a lucrative perfume distributing business from the Muttontown home. Among other fragrances, he sells a popular perfume called Royal Mirage through several corporations, including PVM International, the papers said.