RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — Following a two-week trial, a Chesterfield couple has been convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, harboring for financial gain, and document servitude in connection with their operation of a gas station and convenience store in North Chesterfield.
According to evidence presented at trial, 30-year-old Harmanpreet Singh and 43-year-old Kulbir Kaur forced the victim, Singh’s cousin, to work and provide services at the store, including working as a cashier, preparing food, cleaning and managing store records.
Singh and Kaur used various coercive means, including confiscating the victim’s immigration documents and physically abusing the victim, using threats of force and other serious harm and, at times, degrading living conditions, to compel him to work extensive hours for minimal pay, according to the Department of Justice.
“These defendants engaged in an egregious bait-and-switch, luring the victim with false promises of an education in the United States and instead subjecting him to grueling hours, degrading living conditions, and a litany of mental and physical abuse,” said U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In 2018, Singh and Kaur allegedly enticed the victim, then a minor, to travel to the United States with the false promise of helping enroll him in school. After arriving in the United States, Singh and Kaur took his immigration documents and immediately put him to work.
They also left the victim at the store to sleep in a back office for days at a time on multiple occasions, limited his access to food, refused to provide medical care or education, used surveillance equipment to watch the victim both at the store and in their home, refused his requests to return to India, and made him overstay his visa, according to the Department of Justice.
The evidence further showed that Singh pulled the victim’s hair, slapped and kicked him when he requested his immigration documents back and tried to leave, and on three different occasions threatened the victim with a revolver for trying to take a day off and for trying to leave.
A sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 8. Singh and Kaur face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, up to five years of supervised release, a fine of up to $250,000 and mandatory restitution for the forced labor charge.
A federal district court judge will determine sentencing.
