A woman was convicted on charges she imported two young women from Nigeria to serve as modern-day slaves in her upscale Suwanee and Sugar Hill homes.
Bidemi Bello, a 41-year-old Nigerian citizen, was convicted on two counts of forced labor, two counts of trafficking for forced labor, one count of alien harboring and two counts of making false statements in an application to become a U.S. citizen.
Bello was also convicted on one count of "document servitude," for taking her victims' passport and government documents to prevent them from leaving.
The federal jury returned the verdict late Friday night after a one-week trial and deliberations that lasted an hour and 10 minutes.
Bello physically abused and psychologically intimidated the women, according to a U.S. assistant attorney general.
She recruited young women in Nigeria to come to the United States to work as nannies, promising to send them to school and treat them like family, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. But once the victims arrived, Bello was verbally and physically abusive, doling out beatings.
Bello recruited her first victim in 2001. After that young woman escaped in 2004, Bello returned to Nigeria to recruit another young woman to come to the U.S. later that year, authorities said.
She did not send the women to school or pay them and had them cut the lawn by hand with a knife, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The victims were not allowed to sleep in beds and not allowed to use the shower, and sometimes had to eat spoiled or moldy food. The second victim escaped in 2006 by taking a cab to a church.
"Both women were brave enough to testify in court," said assistant U.S. attorney Susan Coppedge. "This is shocking behavior going on in a normal-looking subdivision in Suwanee, Georgia... I think there are other instances in Georgia and certainly the metropolitan area."
Bello left the United States during the investigation, and when she re-entered she was found and arrested at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. She was indicted in September 2010.
Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 24 before U.S. District Judge Bill Duffey. The forced labor and labor trafficking charges have maximum sentences of 20 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. The document servitude charge has a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. The alien harboring count has a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.
Bello was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 2004 but will lose her U.S. citizenship. She will be deported back to Nigeria after serving time in prison.
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