Boss forced NY event staff to work for free and live in squalor with no heat, feds say

For some wedding attendees, the Thatched Cottage, an upscale catering hall in Long Island, New York, was a “spectacular” venue “plucked from a fairy tale” with “top notch” service, Yelp reviews say. For some employees, however, it was a place of misery, federal officials say.

Multiple staff members, immigrants from the Philippines, were forced to work long hours without pay and made to live in squalid conditions, the Justice Department said. The business’s former manager and recruiter, Roberto Villanueva, who pleaded guilty to forced labor conspiracy in 2020, was sentenced to six years in prison on Oct. 19, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Villanueva’s attorney could not immediately be reached by McClatchy News for comment, and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Villanueva exploited his victims’ immigration status, promising them the American dream,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said, “but instead threatening arrest or deportation if they didn’t work 16 hours a day, often unpaid, sleeping on bug infested mattresses covered in garbage bags, without heat or hot water.”

Before his arrest in 2017, Villanueva, together with the former owner of the Thatched Cottage, brought workers over from the Philippines on H-2B visas that expired soon after their arrival as part of a “bait-and-switch” tactic, according to the release.

They then showed workers how to apply for student visas by lying about their intentions to attend school full-time, the release said. Funds were occasionally deposited into workers’ accounts to create the guise of financial independence and then withdrawn after visas were approved, according to the release.

Workers were then required to work grueling hours, for little or no pay, according to the release. If they objected, “Villanueva threatened to report them to the police or immigration authorities.”

The Thatched Cottage, built in 1920, shuttered in 2014, according to Huntington Now. A new business is now operating at the same location. The owner of the Thatched Cottage also pleaded guilty to forced labor charges in 2018, the outlet reported.

Many of the victims of forced labor in the United States work in the hospitality industry, and most enter the country legally on H-2A and H-2B visas, according to the Department of Homeland Security.