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Home Front: Culture Wars
Wealthy NY Couple Charged With Slavery
2007-05-24
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) - A millionaire couple accused of keeping two Indonesian women as slaves in their luxurious Long Island home and abusing them for years have been indicted on federal slavery charges.
And their names are not 'Dick' and 'Jane'.
Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 35, and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, operate a worldwide perfume business out of their home, contracting with overseas factories to manufacture the fragrances.

The two were arrested last week after one of their servants was found wandering outside a doughnut shop on Long Island, wearing only pants and a towel. The woman was believed to have fled the home in Muttontown, a tony community on Long Island's north shore, when she took the trash out the night before. The couple pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court, and a magistrate judge set bail at $3.5 million and imposed home detention with electronic monitoring.

An indictment handed up Tuesday night formally charged with them with two counts of forced labor and added two counts of harboring illegal residents.

Charles A. Ross, who represents Varsha Sabhnani, has said that the couple traveled extensively and that the two Indonesian women were free to leave whenever they wished.
No money, no friends, no family in the U.S., and no passports, but sure, have at it, go wondering 'round the countryside.
He previously described them as "model citizens" who "only want to clear their names." Friends and relatives indicated the two would be willing to post bail, but as of Wednesday, they remained in custody.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Demitri Jones called the allegations "truly a case of modern-day slavery."
The women, prosecutors said, were subjected to beatings, had scalding water thrown on them and were forced to repeatedly climb stairs as punishment for perceived misdeeds. In one case, prosecutors said, one of the women was forced to eat 25 hot chili peppers at one time. One of the women also told authorities they were forced to sleep on mats in the kitchen and were fed so little, they had to steal food.

The women legally arrived in the United States on B-1 visas in 2002; the Sabhnanis then confiscated their passports and refused to let them leave their home, authorities said. Identified in court papers as Samirah and Nona, the women said they were promised payments of $200 and $100 a month, but federal prosecutors said they were never given money directly. One of the victims' daughters living in Indonesia was sent $100 a month, prosecutors said.

They have since been cared for by Catholic Charities, according to a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
More from Newsday, in which the perps are suing other perfume makers for using similar names for their fragrances:
Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani trademarked the name Attitude and began selling the cologne under that name in 1996, but he neglected to renew the trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, his suit concedes.

Attitude is one of the many high-end fragrances that Sabhnani manufactures and distributes under the name of his company, Eternal Love Parfums, which is headquartered in his home at 205 Coachman Pl. East in Muttontown, according to the court papers. Attitude is one of the company's few products aimed at the male market. Most of the others are perfumes intended for women distributed under the names Eternal Love, Indecent, Elegance, Blu Treasure and Breathtaking, according to the papers. The location is also the place where the two Indonesian women were allegedly held in slavery.
I think I'm smelling something allright.
Posted by:Steve White

#18  Parabellum, anyone making more than $100K/yr (total household income) and living in a house larger than 1500 sq ft is "wealthy". Friggin morons.
Posted by: remoteman   2007-05-24 19:15  

#17  "...luxurious Long Island home"?
Not so fancy, really.
Posted by: Parabellum   2007-05-24 18:57  

#16  Hmmm I wonder what political parry they support and who they sent money to? If it were a Republican we would already know that. FYI a lot of the people coming here on work visas are vitually slaves because if they leaving the employer means leaving the country (in most cases). Not defending their cruel treatment of the women and if there is justice they will have every dime they own given to these ladies.
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2007-05-24 18:03  

#15  "Wealthy NY Couple Charged With Slavery ... Varsha Mahender Sabhnani and her husband, Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani"

Now why did I just know from the headline that they weren't going to be named "Smith" or "Jones"?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2007-05-24 17:05  

#14  Welcome back, mcsegeek1 . Good comments over in the Chinese toothpaste thread.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-24 15:06  

#13  The only way that they obtain a sense of reward is through someone else's loss. It is the epitome of the bully who can only be happy if someone else is unhappy.

This is the modus operendi of Islam and a host of other throwback cultures.

Bingo, Zenster.

BTW...good to be back. Was in Japan for the last 3 months....with lousy and slow internet access.
Posted by: mcsegeek1   2007-05-24 14:42  

#12  The names of the perps look definitely Hinduistic to me.

They're from India, according to this, but this says that he's Indian, she's Indonesian.
Posted by: Angie Schultz   2007-05-24 12:06  

#11  I was reading something in the last couple of days - I do't think here, about 1 of the reasons why they hate the Jews.

Goes back to before WWI when there were no real formal arab/muslim states/borders - when the Jews got an actual state w/borders - it's an affront (yes, everything's an affront) it raised them above their overlords.
Posted by: anonymous2u   2007-05-24 11:45  

#10  sadly the rich in america can now "get away" with almost anything just because they're rich (O.J. Simpson), or at least that's the common view.
Posted by: Sling Jones6985   2007-05-24 11:04  

#9  They should be treated as pirates. Hang them.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-05-24 09:02  

#8  Do the ball park math.
In 1860 there were around 32 million Americans by the census. In 2000, it was around 300 million. From 1861 to 1865 over 250,000 white federal soldiers died to bring forth the 13th Amendment to the Constitution. Todays perspective, that would be like losing 2.3 million in four years.

Slaving in any form is despicable. That it is carried out upon our soil so consecrated by that amount of blood, there isn't a punishment good enough for this crime.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-05-24 08:55  

#7  Yikes! Check out the slaver bitch's face. It's Cruella Deville come to life.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2007-05-24 08:09  

#6  This is the modus operendi of Islam and a host of other throwback cultures.

The names of the perps look definitely Hinduistic to me.
Posted by: JFM   2007-05-24 07:00  

#5  It's more pervasive than that Zenster. And it occurs within our own society, even the non-Islamicist sector.

Unfortunately, those who have a perverted need to perceive themselves, not as free in order to achieve, but superior and dominating of others, are everywhere (although I will admit it seems to be more common in certain meme sets).

You'll see more of this behavior as America (and the world) becomes more affluent. In earlier eras of humanity, only a few were wealthy. Those that had the sick need to feel superior to all others could do so simply by acquiring more wealth. And those that didn't have wealth, and had no way to obtain it and the outward creature comforts that came with it which signified "superiority", were SOL.

Now that more and more people have enough to buy a lot of creature comforts, the formerly much wealthier who have the need to feel superior feel threatened in their superiority, since even the hoi polloi can own wide screen TV's and vacation in warm places and drive nice SUV's. So they take measures to insure that other aspects of behavior still denote themselves as being superior. Constantly being late for appointments, insisting that other individuals with which one interacts ALWAYS compromise their own schedule and convenience for one's own, ridiculous demands for services that go way beyond what is reasonable, slavery, etc. I'm sure that there are other things I've missed.

The concept is called IAMITY - "I'm Always More Important Than You".

Furthermore, as wealth trickles down, now people who would have been lower on the social ladder in earlier, less affluent times, are starting to acquire the same snotty attitudes. Perhaps this is just a common human foible.

I've always felt that if I were the poorest person in the world but I could do the things I like, it wouldn't matter. The need to obsess about how much other people have in terms of their wealth, importance of their time, etc., relative to one's own in defining self esteem is a sad little psychological affliction that I don't understand. In the end it doesn't signify superiority, rather, emptiness of purpose.
Posted by: no mo uro   2007-05-24 06:05  

#4  > "Sadly, there's probably some niggling constitutional amendment that prohibits each of these perps from being given a 25 pepper enema."

The "Cruel and unusual punishment"?


You yanks need an amendment to it saying No cruel and unusual punishment UNLESS it's fun and unusually fitting punishment.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles in Blairistan   2007-05-24 05:52  

#3  It's not enough that you be rich and successful. No, you have to be rich and successful and other people have to be miserable. I don't understand it at all.

Welcome to the cult of the Zero Sum Equation. These Neanderthals simply cannot conceive of the Win-Win situation. The only way that they obtain a sense of reward is through someone else's loss. It is the epitome of the bully who can only be happy if someone else is unhappy.

This is the modus operendi of Islam and a host of other throwback cultures. Tormenting others is a soothing balm for the constantly humiliated souls of those who simply cannot stand the notion of anyone else being successful if they themselves are not as well. It is taken as a personal affront that someone else would have the audacity to uplift themselves without first supplicating the personal wants and needs of these self-presumed elite. Be it Robert Mugabe, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, the Iranian mullahs or any other garden variety tin pot dictator, all of them view this world's wealth as their personal playtoy to be kept out of the hands of the great unwashed.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-24 04:47  

#2  one of the women was forced to eat 25 hot chili peppers at one time.

Hell, Texans call that "foreplay". But seriously folks, sell off all assets of these slimebags and reimburse the women at treble damages for unpaid back wages with overtime. Sadly, there's probably some niggling constitutional amendment that prohibits each of these perps from being given a 25 pepper enema.
Posted by: Zenster   2007-05-24 04:33  

#1  There's something about these people's culture. It's not enough that you be rich and successful. No, you have to be rich and successful and other people have to be miserable. I don't understand it at all.
Posted by: gromky   2007-05-24 04:05  

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