A New Jersey woman was sentenced on Wednesday to 45 months in prison for forced labour and other crimes related to her coercive scheme to compel two victims to perform domestic labor and childcare in her home.
Bolaji Bolarinwa, 51, of Moorestown, previously was found guilty of two counts of forced labor, one count of alien harboring for financial gain and two counts of document servitude following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Karen M. Williams in Camden federal court. Judge Williams imposed the sentence in Camden federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and the evidence at trial, from December 2015 to October 2016, Bolarinwa — originally from Nigeria, but living in New Jersey as a U.S. citizen — recruited two victims to come to the United States and then coerced them to perform domestic labor and childcare services for her children through physical harm, threats of physical harm, isolation, constant surveillance and psychological abuse.
The defendant engaged in this conduct knowing that one of the victims was out of lawful immigration status while working in her home.
Once the first victim arrived in the United States in December 2015, Bolarinwa confiscated her passport and coerced her through threats of physical harm to her and her daughter, verbal abuse, isolation and constant surveillance to compel her to work every day, around-the-clock for nearly a year.
Bolarinwa then recruited a second victim to come to the United States on a student visa.
When the second victim arrived in the United States in April 2016, Bolarinwa similarly confiscated her passport and coerced her to perform household work and childcare but relied more heavily on physical abuse.
The two victims lived and worked in Bolarinwa’s home until October 2016, when the second victim notified a professor at her college, who reported the information to the FBI.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Williams sentenced Bolarinwa to three years of supervised release, imposed a $35,000 fine, and ordered Bolarinwa to pay $87,518.72 in restitution to the victims of her offenses.
“The defendant exploited her relationship with the victims to lure them to the United States with false promises,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The defendant confiscated the victims’ immigration documents and subjected them to threats, physical force, and mental abuse to coerce them to work long hours for minimal pay.”
“Today’s sentence vindicates the rights of two vulnerable women who the defendant subjected to grueling hours and coercive abuse in her home,” said U.S. Attorney Alina Habba for District of New Jersey. “Forced labor and human trafficking are atrocious crimes that have no place in our society.”
Acting special agent in charge Terence G. Reilly of the FBI Newark Field Office said Bolarinwa lured women with false promises, held them captive, and forced them clean her home and care for her children.
He added that Bolarinwa then took it a “sickening step further” by physically abusing them.
