CALIFORNIA
A federal judge scheduled for sentencing Satish Kartan, 45, and his wife, Sharmistha Barai, 40, in June after the pair were found guilty of forced labor and two counts of obtaining forced labor, according to officials.
Both defendants are each facing up to 20 years in prison, officials said.
In addition, Kartan was found guilty of fraud in foreign labor contracting, according to authorities.
Victims, who were tortured and beaten, flew from India and Nepal to testify during the 11-day trial.
“These defendants exploited one victim after another, using them to labor in their home, failing to pay wages and depriving them of basic human rights,” said U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott.
“Kartan and Barai did not simply fail to pay victims for their work,” said Sean Ragan, Special Agent in Charge of the Sacramento FBI Field Office. “They deprived them of their dignity and robbed them of their federally-protected civil rights. The FBI will work with partner agencies to protect victims of human trafficking wherever that crime occurs.”
According to court evidence, between February 2014 and October 2016, Kartan and Barai hired workers from overseas to perform domestic labor in their home in Stockton.
In advertisements seeking workers on the internet and India-based newspapers, the defendants made false claims regarding the wages and the duties of employment.
Then, once the workers arrived at the defendants’ Stockton residence, Kartan and Barai forced them to work 18 hours a day with limited rest and nourishment.
Few of them were paid any wage.
The defendants kept their domestic workers from leaving, and induced them to keep working for them, by threatening them, by creating an atmosphere of fear, control, and disempowerment, and at times by physically hitting or burning them.
When a victim pushed back or said she wanted to leave, it got worse.
According to evidence presented at trial, the defendants struck one worker on multiple occasions.
Barai threatened to kill her and throw her bones in the garbage, backhanded her across the face for talking back, and slammed her hands down on a gas stove, causing her to suffer first and second-degree burns on her hands from the flames.
The defendants also threatened several other victims to coerce them to keep working, including by telling the victims they would report them to police or immigration authorities if they tried to leave.
Throughout the victims’ time in the defendants’ home, they were deprived of sleep and food. The defendants subjected the victims to verbal abuse and harassment in an effort to intimidate them into continuing to provide labor and services.
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