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Harsha Sahni, 66, of Tinton Falls, also must cover $200,000 worth of treatment of a brain aneurysm that one of the women suffered while they worked in her and her family's homes, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
Federal prosecutors required the payments as part of a plea deal that allowed Sahni to avoid the potential consequences of a conviction at a trial, the U.S. attorney said.
In exchange, Sahni admitted that she paid the victims' families in India instead of them and frightened both women into believing that they'd be arrested if they revealed their situations to investigators, he said.
Sahni also admitted that she used fake names and addresses to conceal the women's true identities and instructed them to tell other people that they were related to her, Sellinger said.
“Unlawful labor schemes often exploit the most vulnerable members of our society,” Special Agent in Charge of HSI Newark Ricky J. Patel said following the plea hearing in U.S. District Court in Trenton on Thursday, Feb. 16.
“Hasha Sahni conspired to take advantage of [the women] while essentially stealing their money," Patel said.
As part of the deal, Sahni also must make restitution to the IRS for taxes she avoided through the scheme, Sellinger noted. She still could get prison time, however, when she is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Georgette Castner on June 20.
Sellinger credited special agents of the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations Newark Field Office, special agents of IRS - Criminal Investigation's New York Field Office and special agents of the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service's New York Field Office with the investigation leading to the guilty plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamie H. Solano of his Cybercrime Unit in Newark.
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