{"id":56835,"date":"2024-06-25T18:19:50","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T01:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=56835"},"modified":"2024-06-25T18:32:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T01:32:57","slug":"couple-sentenced-to-prison-for-forcing-a-man-to-work-at-their-gas-station-and-convenience-store-for-more-than-three-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=56835","title":{"rendered":"Couple Sentenced to Prison for Forcing Victim to Work at Their Gas Station and Convenience Store for More Than Three Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Lady<\/a><\/p>\n

A Virginia couple was sentenced on Tuesday for forcing the man’s younger cousin to work at their gas station and convenience store for over three years, according to officials.<\/span><\/p>\n

They have since divorced.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harmanpreet Singh, 31, was sentenced to 11 years and four months in prison. Co-defendant Kulbir Kaur, 43, was sentenced to seven years and three months.<\/span><\/p>\n

The court also ordered them to pay the victim $225,21o in restitution.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"\u201cThe defendants exploited their relationship with the victim to lure him to the United States with false promises that they would help enroll him in school,\u201d said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Rights Division. \u201cThe defendants confiscated the victim\u2019s immigration documents and subjected him to threats, physical force and mental abuse to coerce him to work long hours for minimal pay. “<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe defendants lured the victim to travel from India to Virginia to work at their gas station where they exploited him for over three year,\u201d said Assistant Director Michael Nordwall of the FBI\u2019s Criminal Investigative Division. \u201cThe FBI will continue to work in all communities to stop forced labor trafficking and the psychological and physical violence that comes with it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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After a two-week trial in January, a federal jury in Virginia found Singh and Kaur guilty of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, harboring for financial gain, and document servitude.<\/span><\/p>\n

The evidence showed that in 2018, the defendants lured Singh\u2019s younger cousin, then a minor, from India to the United States with false promises of enrolling him in school.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the victim arrived, they confiscated his immigration documents and forced him to work at Singh\u2019s store from March 2018 to May 2021. <\/span><\/p>\n

The victim worked 12 to 17 hours a day, nearly every day, for minimal pay, performing tasks such as cleaning, cooking, stocking, and handling the cash register and store records.<\/span><\/p>\n

\""GoonSingh and Kaur used various coercive methods, including physical abuse, threats, confiscation of documents, and degrading living conditions, to compel the victim to continue working. <\/span><\/p>\n

They also made him sleep in a back office for days, limited his access to food, denied medical care and education, and monitored him with surveillance equipment. They refused his requests to return to India and made him overstay his visa.<\/span><\/p>\n

The defendants forced the victim to marry Kaur and threatened to take his family\u2019s properties or falsely report him to the police if he tried to leave. <\/span><\/p>\n

Singh also physically assaulted the victim and threatened him with a revolver on multiple occasions.<\/span><\/p>\n

The FBI Richmond Field Office investigated the case.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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U.S. Attorneys Avi Panth and Peter S. Duffey for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Matthew Thiman of the Civil Rights Division\u2019s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit prosecuted the case.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Virginia couple was sentenced on Tuesday for forcing the man’s younger cousin to work at their gas station and convenience store for over three years, according to officials. 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