A Virginia couple was sentenced today for compelling the labor of the man’s younger cousin at their gas station and convenience store for over three years. The couple has since divorced.
Harmanpreet Singh, 31, was sentenced to 135 months in prison, and Kulbir Kaur, 43, was sentenced to 87 months in prison. Additionally, the court ordered Singh and Kaur to pay the victim $225,210.76 in restitution.
“The defendants exploited their relationship with the victim to lure him to the United States with false promises that they would help enroll him in school,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The defendants confiscated the victim’s immigration documents and subjected him to threats, physical force and mental abuse to coerce him to work long hours for minimal pay. This sentence should send a strong message that such forced labor will not be tolerated in our communities. The Justice Department is committed to fully enforcing our federal human trafficking statutes to vindicate the rights of survivors and hold human traffickers accountable for such shameful exploitation of vulnerable victims.”
“The crimes committed by these defendants are not merely violations of the law; they are an affront to humanity,” said U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber for the Eastern District of Virginia. “These defendants preyed on the victim’s earnest desire to attain an education and improve his life. Instead, they deprived him of the most basic human needs and robbed him of his freedom. We remain steadfastly committed to securing justice for victims of human trafficking.”
“The defendants lured the victim to travel from India to Virginia to work at their gas station where they exploited him for over three years,” said Assistant Director Michael Nordwall of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “The FBI will continue to work in all communities to stop forced labor trafficking and the psychological and physical violence that comes with it.”
Following a two-week trial in January, a federal jury in the Eastern District of Virginia convicted Singh and Kaur of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, harboring for financial gain, and document servitude. The evidence presented at trial demonstrated that, in 2018, the defendants enticed the victim, Singh’s cousin and then a minor, to travel from India with false promises of helping enroll him in school. After arriving in the United States, they took his immigration documents and instead forced him into labor at Singh’s store from March 2018 until May 2021.
According to trial evidence, Singh and Kaur compelled the victim into various tasks including cleaning, cooking, stocking shelves, handling cash registers, and maintaining store records between 12-17 hours daily for minimal pay. They used coercive means such as confiscating immigration documents; subjecting him to physical abuse; threats; degrading living conditions; limiting access to food; denying medical care or education; constant surveillance; refusing requests for repatriation; making him overstay his visa; forcing marriage with Kaur under threat; threatening family property seizure or false police reports if he left.
Singh allegedly pulled his cousin's hair when he requested his documents back or tried leaving on multiple occasions while also slapping or kicking him when attempts were made again along with revolver threats thrice over taking days off or trying escape.
The FBI Richmond Field Office investigated this case.
Assistant U.S Attorneys Avi Panth & Peter S Duffey (Eastern District VA) alongside Trial Attorney Matthew Thiman (Civil Rights Division Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit) prosecuted this matter.
Anyone having information about human trafficking should report it via National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free: 1-888-373-7888 available round-the-clock seven days weekly.For more details visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org.Information on DOJ efforts combating HT found @ www.justice.gov/humantrafficking