A Chinese woman accused of beating and starving a woman she brought from China to work as a nanny in Minnesota is to be deported after she spends a year in jail.
Lili Huang (黃麗麗), 36, pleaded guilty to charges of forced labor and third-degree assault.
Huang was on Thursday sentenced to a year and a day in jail.
US District Judge David Doty also ordered her to forfeit her home and pay nearly US$100,000 in restitution.
Huang lived in Woodbury, a suburb of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Authorities said the 58-year-old nanny was found wandering in the street in July last year, battered and malnourished.
She weighed less than 40kg, had several broken bones and bruises on her face.
She told police she fled Huang’s home after being threatened with a kitchen knife.
The woman was treated well when she worked for Huang in China, but the abuse began after they immigrated to Minnesota, court documents said.
Investigators said she was forced to work up to 18 hours per day doing child care, cooking and cleaning, for less than US$2 per hour, which is a fraction of the state’s minimum wage of US$7.75 per hour.
The nanny in April last year asked Huang to buy her a plane ticket to return to China, but Huang said she was not allowed to leave and hid her passport.
Huang is a Chinese citizen living in the US with a valid visa.
Ryan Pacyga, Huang’s attorney, said she was experiencing mental health problems at the time of the abuse.
“It’s extremely rare to have a federal labor trafficking case that ends in a sentence this short, frankly — so we’re happy about that,” Pacyga said.
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