Century City, California, United States

Although the FBI had been investigating Global Horizons for a number of years, when an arrest warrant was served on Orian, it appeared to come as a surprise. Although he was on a business trip to Texas when federal agents descended on his Malibu home, his wife said they handcuffed her and by her account acted aggressively without any justification. Orian denies all the allegations against him, and expressed hope that he would be released on bond by Wednesday, despite a prosecution request that he be held until the end of legal proceedings. Orian was formally charged on Sep. 1 in what federal officials described as the biggest human-trafficking case ever brought by the U.S. government. On Sep. 2, Orian "deceived and evaded federal FBI agents for approximately 24 hours by providing sporadic misleading and conflicting information concerning his location, willingness to surrender in Dallas, and failing to report," government lawyers stated in documents filed with the federal court. They further charged that Orian "flew to Hawaii on another flight to avoid contact with federal agents at the airport." Today Orian is sitting in a Honolulu jail awaiting Judge Leslie Kobayashi's decision on a government request to deny Orian's release on one million dollars bail secured on his exclusive West Moonshadows Drive home in Malibu. Susan Cushman, assistant U.S. attorney for Hawaii, has filed documents stating that Orian is a flight risk, noting that he had used 26 different aliases and four different Social Security numbers in the past. Multiple Court Cases Cushman's request to keep Orian locked up until trial also described numerous violations of the law, according to a filing delivered to the Honolulu court on Sep. 9. Cushman provided the court with a copy of a 2003 report, "Migrant Workers in Israel - A Contemporary Form of Slavery," published by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network and the International Federation for Human Rights. It states that Orian, an Israeli national, took 3,000 dollars from each of 19 Chinese workers for the "privilege" of working in Israel for two years. "By the end of February Mr. Orian owed each of the workers between 2-3 months wages," the report concluded. "Instead of paying the workers, he sent ten armed guards to surprise the workers in their sleep, beat them and drive them to the airport, where they were forcibly deported." In another document filed by Cushman, U.S. Department of Labour Judge William Dorsey concluded on Nov. 30, 2006 that Global Horizons Manpower, Inc. had "willfully and fraudulently represented it had contracts with Taft Farms" in Bakersfield, California to obtain temporary work visas for more than 200 workers between Aug. 1, 2003 and Apr. 30, 2004. Dorsey found that the company had neither a contract nor jobs for the 200 workers. Unable to find them paid employment, Global Horizons fired the workers "for poor performance, when in fact, they were terminated for lack of work," Dorsey wrote in his final decision. He ordered that Orian be barred for three years from bringing guest workers into the U.S. On Sep. 7, 2007, Philipda Modrakee, a U.S. Department of Labour investigator, filed a report on 156 Global Horizons workers employed at the Maui Pineapple Farm in Hawaii. Modrakee estimated that Global Horizons owed 459,256 dollars in fines for failure to pay wages at the minimum rate and on time, for illegally deducting money from the workers' paycheques for housing, and for failing to provide them with transportation to their work sites.

Location

United States · Century City, California · 2011 (location generalized to protect survivors)

Response & intervention

Many events described in the indictment took place in 2004 and 2005, when Global Horizons first brought hundreds of Thai workers to farms in Hawaii and Washington State. But Chanchanit Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center in Los Angeles, said the charges were the culmination of years of pressure by that group. She said questions about Global Horizons’ management of the Thai laborers arose when one of them fled a work crew in Hawaii in 2003, and found his way to Los Angeles and the center. Immigration attorney Melissa Vincenty of Honolulu, who is representing 80 clients with claims against Global Horizon, told the Maui News last week that the company had confiscated the workers' passports and visas. "It is called document servitude," Vincenty told the newspaper, noting that passports are required for travel between the islands that make up the state of Hawaii. There, on Sep. 8, in front of the Wat Thai Buddhist temple, some 25 Thai farm workers lined up wearing sunglasses, baseball caps, and traditional Thai scarves to disguise themselves for fear of retaliation, they said. One-by-one they told media assembled at a press conference organised by the Thai Community Development Center about their treatment at the hands of Global Horizons. Many events described in the indictment took place in 2004 and 2005, when Global Horizons first brought hundreds of Thai workers to farms in Hawaii and Washington State. But Chanchanit Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center in Los Angeles, said the charges were the culmination of years of pressure by that group. She said questions about Global Horizons’ management of the Thai laborers arose when one of them fled a work crew in Hawaii in 2003, and found his way to Los Angeles and the center. Since then, Ms. Martorell said, the center has identified 263 Thai guest workers who were brought to the United States on legal temporary visas by Global Horizons, but later fled what they described as oppressive conditions.

Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don't have a verifiable source on file yet — use “Report a problem” below to add one.

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