The name of their company was "Quality Staffing Services Corporation," but there was nothing quality about the way in which Alfonso Baldonado Jr. and Sophia Manuel provided their labor pool to area hotels and country clubs.
The pair pled guilty to forcing 39 Filipino nationals to work for little or no money under threat of deportation.
Federal court filings obtained by the Sun-Sentinel show Manuel, 41, also pled guilty to making false statements in an application she filed with the U.S. Department of Labor to obtain foreign labor visas under the federal guest worker program.
She and Baldonado, 45, brought the Filipino nationals to their home in Boca Raton, where they confiscated their passports and informed them they had incurred huge debts.
The victims were then confined to an overcrowded home, forced to live in squalid conditions without adequate food or drinking water and unable to leave without an escort.
Prosecutors say the pair controlled the group by threatening them with arrest and deportation.
"[The victims] came here seeking a better life," said U.S. Attorney Wilfredo Ferrer, "but found their dream of freedom transformed into a real-life nightmare of servitude and fear."
