Feds auction off Muttontown 'slave' home

The auction flier touted 5,584 square feet of living space with a slate patio, in a neighborhood ranked among the wealthiest in the country.

It didn't have to note the ignominious acts within. Everyone already seemed to know.

Federal authorities Thursday auctioned off the Muttontown home seized from a couple convicted of enslaving their Indonesian housekeepers. Several dozen people attended, but just a handful bid.

A local real estate investor won the half-acre property for $1.1 million. It had been valued -- upon U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents taking it in 2008 -- at almost double that figure.

"I didn't really think about it," the winning bidder, Mariam Nawabi, said of the history.

Varsha and Mahender Sabhnani, who made millions distributing perfumes in the Middle East, remain in federal prison. After their 2007 conviction they were ordered to pay the victims $680,000. The auction proceeds will go to the government.

Varsha Sabhnani, sentenced to 11 years, was accused of using her nails to cut the women behind their ears, knocking out their teeth and making them eat chili peppers. Her husband, sentenced to 40 months, was said to have turned a blind eye to the abuse. The convictions included forced labor, involuntary servitude and harboring aliens.

The victims testified that the couple had them work 19-hour days and sleep on kitchen mats.

"You have a lot of curiosity seekers here," said Andrew M. Lax, a Manhattan entrepreneur who was willing to pay $900,000 for the home -- but only as an investment.

"My wife said, 'I would never live there,' " Lax said.

Built in 1986, the home has five baths, two offices, ornate molding and an inlaid compass in the foyer.

Rob Doyle, the contracted auctioneer, led bidding from a back patio, competing with the hum of the in-ground pool's rock waterfall.

"My gosh," he proclaimed. "A lotta house here for the money!"

Later, a friend of the second-highest bidder agreed, regardless of the home's back story.

"In today's market? Not bad," said Anthony Khaledi, an Oyster Bay Cove antiques broker. "And I don't believe in karma. It's something for the books. It doesn't exist in real life."