Federal prosecutors have formally charged the Indian-American multimillionaire couple who are accused of enslaving and abusing two Indonesian women with forced labour and harbouring illegal immigrants.
The indictments came on Tuesday night even as relatives of couple were trying to put together a bail package for Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 35, and her husband Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51. They are expected to be arraigned before a grand jury.
The bail for Varsha Sabhnani, who is accused of torturing the women whom they had hired as house help, has been set at $2.5 million and for her husband, who allegedly allowed the abuse to take place, at $1 million.
After being released on bail, they will be obliged to stay at home except for visiting attorneys, doctor and church. Their movements would be electronically monitoried. Their passports have been impounded.
Sabhnanis, who came from India and later became American citizens, have entered a "not guilty" plea.
The couple had been running their perfume business from home and have factories in Singapore and Bahrain.
The investigation began when one of the women wearing only pants and towel was found wandering near a fast food establishment and the employees called the police. She explained with help of an interpreter that she had been abused and said that there was another woman in the house. The police searched the house and found the other lady also.
The women, identified as Nona and Samirah, said they were expected to hide when someone came to the house. They were forced to work for long hours, made to sleep on mats in the kitchen and Sabhnani also allegedly made remarks derogatory to their religion -- Islam.
One woman was alleged to have sustained injuries like a cut behind her ear. Among other things, both women were scalded with hot water, forced to climb stairs repeatedly, take several cold water showers and eat hot chilies as punishment.
One of the women said she was promised USD 200 and the other USD 100 per month. Prosecutors said they were not given the money but the daughter of one of the women in Indonesia is said to have sent USD 100 a month.
Meanwhile, Mahender Sabhanani has filed suit against L'Oreal and Giorgio Armani perfumes for alleged trademark infringement of his men's cologne.
Sabhnani contends he launched Attitude in 1995 and that it is sold nationwide. Then in March, Sabhnani read that L'Oreal was promoting a men's cologne with the same name.
He contends that he found out that the US Patent and Trademark Office had canceled his trademark because he had neglected to file some paperwork. L'Oreal applied to use the name last December, the complaint says. Giorgio Armani Perfumes is a division of L'Oreal.
