Falls Church, United States

United States · Falls Church · 2009 (location generalized to protect survivors)

The list of Lubis' 50 clients divulged in court filings by federal prosecutors includes a high-profile Washington attorney, multiple doctors -- among them a high-ranking doctor at a Maryland hospital -- and an engineer who invented an electric backup system for houses that use well water. No charges have been filed against the people who employed the women, and The Examiner has chosen not to release their names. But prosecutors had tough words for the wealthy area homeowners who used the slave labor. "The various employers are also participants" in Lubis' scheme, prosecutors wrote. "They knew or were willfully blind to the fact that the victims were illegal aliens and that Lubis harbored them." Lubis' actions amount to what human trafficking experts call modern-day slavery. "Traffickers take advantage of desperation," said Mark Lagon, director of the Polaris Project and former head of the State Department's human trafficking office. "They take advantage of people in such flagrant ways that it's slavery." Several of the 20 women have helped authorities build their case against Lubis, who is expected to be sentenced to up to eight years later this month. His sentencing was originally slated for Wednesday, but was postponed. He has pleaded guilty to harboring illegal immigrants for commercial and financial gain. At least four of the women have obtained special visas that allow victims of human trafficking to stay in the U.S., authorities said. Those four women still live with the Potomac employers who hired them from Lubis, the employers confirmed. One of the Potomac clients served as Lubis' funnel into the high society, prosecutors wrote in court documents. That woman employed one of Lubis' victims and then referred friends and neighbors to him.