Ex-Thatched Cottage manager pleads guilty to forced-labor charges

The former manager of the Thatched Cottage catering hall in Centerport on Wednesday pleaded guilty to charges in a federal anti-slavery and visa fraud case that alleged workers were recruited from the Philippines and mistreated.

Roberto Villanueva, 63, of Huntington, entered the plea in U.S. Eastern District Court, on charges including forced labor conspiracy and forced labor of employees.

He said he and the once popular hall’s longtime owner, Ralph Colamussi, sometimes threatened the workers that they would call immigration authorities if the workers did not stop complaining about working conditions at the wedding venue.

He and Colamussi told the workers that “we had friends that are immigration police, if you don’t work you will be arrested and deported,” according to a statement that Villanueva wrote and then read in the Central Islip courtroom.

The two also told the workers “that you can’t leave, or we will have you arrested and call immigration on you, “ he said.

“This was done to scare them and have them continue to work at Colamussi’s business,” Villanueva said at the hearing before United States Magistrate Judge Anne Y. Shields.

When sentenced, Villanueva faces up to 20 years in prison, as well as restitution and a fine of up to $250,000 on each count, according to Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

Colamussi pleaded guilty in September 2018 to forced labor of employees among other charges and is awaiting sentencing.

Villanueva’s court-appointed attorney, Carl Andrew Irace of East Hampton, said that “at sentencing it will become clear that his role in this was limited.”

“We thought that there were some clear strategic and substantive benefits to proceeding in this manner, including the opportunity to litigate issues where our case is stronger during the upcoming sentencing proceedings," he added.

The Thatched Cottage closed in 2014 after Huntington officials condemned the property on the waterfront along State Route 25A. The events venue Water's Edge now occupies the space.

Villanueva said he worked there from 2008 through early 2013.

Villanueva, a Philippine national who worked as both a recruiter and manager at the hall, admitted in court that workers were brought from the Philippines to the United States on H-2B visas that expired shortly after their arrival.

After that, Villanueva would coach workers how to apply for student visas by fraudulently representing that they intended to attend school full-time and had sufficient resources to support themselves during school, according to Donoghue.

Villanueva admitted that at times he deposited funds in the workers’ bank accounts — as much as $10,000 at a time — to give the appearance of ample resources, and then withdrew the funds once the student visas were approved, Donoghue said in statement.

The conditions where the workers were housed were poor, Assistant United States Attorney Charles P. Kelly said in court. They wrapped themselves in garbage bags at night as they slept on mattress to fight off bedbugs, he said.

Officials said Villanueva’s status as a green card holder could be affected by the case, leading to his possible deportation.

He has been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for the last two years, his attorney said.