New York: Held guilty of modern day slavery and awaiting sentences, Mahender and Varsha Sabhnani, a wealthy business couple are set to lose their million-dollar house in Long Island near here.
India born Mahender, 51, and Indonesia-born Varsha, 45, are naturalised US citizens, who face around 20 years in prison after both were convicted for imprisoning and torturing two Indonesian maids in their house over a period of five years.
Federal court jurors in Central Islip unanimously decided Tuesday that the Sabhnanis' property in Muttontown was used in the commission of a crime and must be forfeited to the government.
The Sabhnanis operate a successful worldwide perfume business out of their Muttontown home.
The allegations against the couple included forcing the maids, identified only as Samirah and Enung, to work over 18 hours a day, beatings with brooms and umbrellas, slashings with knives and being made to repeatedly climb stairs and take freezing showers.
The same jury Monday had convicted the couple of imprisoning and torturing the two maids.
The Sabhnanis' case had received wide publicity in the US as well as abroad because prosecutors called it a rare instance of modern day slavery.
Their lawyers said the jury was taken with the histrionics of the maids, and plan to appeal.
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