NY millionaire gets 11 years for Slave Labor

Working from home and selling fortified-strength fragrances to customers in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, the Sabhnanis made millions. "It started in our basement and just kind of grew from there," said Pooja Sabhnani, 23, the oldest of their four children. "My parents worked incredibly hard."

Eventually, they brought servants from Indonesia, where Varsha Sabhnani had been raised. On May 13, 2007, the police were called to a Dunkin' Donuts in Syosset, N.Y., where one of the domestic workers had turned up. Her face was bruised and she wore only pants and a towel.

When the Dunkin' Donuts employees tried to talk to the 51-year-old woman, identified as Samirah -- like many Indonesians, she uses only one name -- she made gestures of hitting herself and uttered what sounded to them like the word "master."

Immigration officials who searched the Sabhnanis' house found Samirah's co-worker, Enung, then 46, hiding in a closet.

Speaking through an interpreter, the two women described for authorities an existence on Long Island that sounded very much like slave labor. They spoke of starvation, beatings and torture. Their compensation of $100 a month for working 17-hour days with no days off amounted to a wage of roughly 20 cents an hour.

It was the case that ignited domestic workers' rights in our area. In a packed courtroom in Suffolk County, a judge sentenced a woman to 11 years in prison for abusing and holding two Indonesian housekeepers as slaves.

CBS 2 HD was outside the courtroom as the woman's family members stood by stunned.

Varsha Sabhnani's children held up their father, 51-year-old Mahender, who is to be sentenced Friday, rushing tearfully emotionally past reporters after earlier ignoring an assembled group of workers' rights protestors.

On the 10th floor of federal court Varsha, who had lost more weight, wept openly while dressed in a droopy forest green jailhouse jumpsuit. She appeared as an emotional and physical wreck as she addressing the court. Choking back sobs she said, "I love my children very much. I was brought to this earth to help people who are in need."

But the judge showed little mercy, giving her 11 years, nearly the maximum and hefty fines. The mother of four was quickly rushed away.