Posted on 10/23/2020 8:34:40 AM PDT by ransomnote
The Justice Department today announced that former Stockton, California resident Satish Kartan, 46, was sentenced today to 188 months in prison for forced labor violations. In addition, U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. ordered $15,657 be paid in restitution to three victims, in part to cover their back wages and other losses.
On March 14, 2019, after an 11-day trial, a federal jury found Kartan and his wife, Sharmistha Barai, 40, guilty of conspiracy to obtain forced labor and two counts of obtaining forced labor. Kartan was also found guilty of one count of fraud in foreign labor contracting. On Oct. 2, Barai was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in prison for forced labor violations.
“The United States abolished slavery and involuntary servitude more than 150 years ago,” said Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. “Yet, inhuman forced labor and deprivations of liberty and dignity persist because human traffickers proliferate modern-day slavery, and endeavor to exploit their fellow human beings for profit and other gruesome purposes. The sentence imposed today sends a stern message that human trafficking and forced labor will not be tolerated in the United States. The defendant’s role in this scheme to compel the victims into servitude for up to 18 hours a day, with minimal pay, through intimidation, threats, and violence, is an unconscionable and illegal criminal violation of the victims’ individual rights, freedom, and dignity. The Civil Rights Division remains committed to pursuing justice relentlessly on behalf of victims of human trafficking and prosecuting perpetrators to the fullest extent of the law.”
“Kartan earned his sentence by the systematic abuse and exploitation of vulnerable women for the benefit of his wife and family,” said U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott for the Eastern District of California. “He verbally abused multiple victims, withheld basic sustenance from them, and physically intimidated them. Today’s sentence will send a loud message to others engaged in human trafficking and labor. Moreover, it will give Kartan’s victims the peace of mind that he will never be able to abuse them again.”
“Those engaged in the heinous crime of forced labor will face severe consequences for their actions,” said Matthew Perlman, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), San Francisco Field Office. “The Diplomatic Security Service and our partner agencies will continue to aggressively pursue and prosecute those who commit visa fraud to exploit others for their own personal gain.”
“Victims of labor trafficking are often unaware of how to get help and that services are available to help them after they are recovered,” said SAC Sean Ragan of the FBI Sacramento Field Office. “The FBI is committed to working with our law enforcement partners and investigating allegations of human trafficking and to break the cycle of force, fraud, or coercion that has bound victims to their traffickers. To be successful, we need your help. Please report alleged human trafficking to law enforcement or submit a tip to tips.fbi.gov.”
“This sentencing is a success in the fight against the heinous crime of human trafficking in our region and our dedication to bring these criminals to justice,” said Tatum King, SAC, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) for San Francisco and Northern California. “We are grateful to our law enforcement partners, especially the Stockton Police Department, Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, DSS, and the FBI, for their unwavering efforts not only in this investigation, but in our continued fight to disrupt and dismantle human trafficking networks worldwide. We also are appreciative of the critical work that community-based organizations provide in bringing these heinous violations to light as well as the critical resources they provide to victims to assist in their recovery.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, between February 2014 and October 2016, Kartan and Barai hired workers from overseas to perform domestic labor in their home in Stockton. In advertisements seeking workers on the internet and India-based newspapers, the defendants made false claims about the wages and conditions of employment. Once the workers arrived at the defendants’ Stockton residence, Kartan and Barai compelled them to work up to 18 hours a day with limited rest and nourishment. Few of them were paid any wage. As part of the conspiracy, the couple kept the domestic workers from leaving and coerced them to continue working by threatening them, by creating an atmosphere of fear, control, and disempowerment, and at times by physically hitting or burning them. When a victim resisted or expressed a desire to leave, the threats and abuse became worse.
This case was the product of an investigation by HSI, the FBI, and DSS. The Stockton Police Department provided the initial investigation and later assistance with victim services. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jason Hitt and Katherine Lydon prosecuted the case with the assistance of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.
The Eastern District of California (Sacramento) is one of six districts designated through a competitive, nationwide selection process as a Phase II Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team, through the interagency ACTeam Initiative of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor. ACTeams focus on developing high-impact human trafficking investigations and prosecutions involving forced labor, international sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion through interagency collaboration among federal prosecutors and federal investigative agencies.
Third world trash imported on H1B visas. Mike Lee from Kobol by way of Mumbai would be proud.
Does it make a difference that he’s a “husband,” rather than a bachelor, widower, or divorced?
Continuing the customs of their homeland.........in our homeland.
Exactly what I was thinking. He brought his culture with him.
Only if your over arching agenda is to disrespect marriage.
He could have just as reasonably been described as an immigrant, if the agenda was to tar and feather ferners...
But seriously the description sounded a little exxagerated. How much work is really involved in keeping a house in Stockton clean? Did they have a big rock pile in the back? I am guessing that this is going to make it a little harder for illegal aliens to find work as “domestic laborers”.
‘’that idiot Trump’’? WTF??
“How much work is really involved in keeping a house in Stockton clean? “
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It’s not about what’s involved in cleaning the house.
The servant/slave was expected to be able to wait on the family at all house of the day and night.
Kind of like having a staff available 24/7/365 as with being in a very expensive hotel. That’s why their sleeping hours were so limited.
I am PISSED the wife didn’t get a prison sentence like the husband.
Her tushie needs to be in prison.
Switch on your sarcasm detector.
In this situation we have people from India taking advantage of other people from India. They should all just be sent back to... India. And then try to get along over there. Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying millions of dollars to try and force our politically correct morals on people who should just be deported back to the 3rd world dumps that they came from.
I worked a job for 25 years with 24 your shifts so I understand what it is like to have to get up at all hours to take care of people who sometimes were just making nuisances out of themselves. This person will serve as a scapegoat to discourage others from hiring illegal aliens as household servants... so maybe it is an overall positive for California. But this is not an appropriate sentence, the situation was obviously exxagerated, just as you have exxagerated it here.
How indeed?
What don’t you just put up the sarcasm tag next time ok smart ass.
“But this is not an appropriate sentence, the situation was obviously exxagerated, just as you have exxagerated it here.”
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And this is why, Free Speech is so important, isn’t it, fireman15?
We each can state a belief.
With that in mind:
The husband got a just punishment.
And the wife? Well, she just got plain lucky.
Good point.
In California murders get let out in just a few years in many cases. This guy is getting nearly 16 years for hiring a “domestic servant” and having to pay an additional nearly $5000 a piece in “restitution”. How long did each of them work for the family... at 24 hours a day... two weeks, a month? Whoopdie! Whoopdie! And to bring this beast to justice it took the combined resources of the HSI, the FBI, the DSS and the Stockton Police Department. There was a cultural problem going on... what is acceptable in India is not appropriate here. They should have just sent them all back to India where they could live the way that they are all accustomed to.
You answered your own question.
“Well you are not the only one with the right to express your opinion,”
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And, once again....
This is why Free Speech is so wonderful and freely available in this country.
And why Free Republic does an outstanding job!
You are fully entitled to have your belief system. I’m not denying it to you.
My belief system is that which punishes the man in the same sense as he was denying to those he employed. His punishment, was not quite severe enough, though.
And, again, the wife was just plain lucky. I personally get irked when women who are accomplices to crimes get off so much lighter than their male partner. Then again, that is a particular pet peeve of mine.
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