By SELIM ALGAR
Posted: 5:00 am
June 28, 2008
Doing nothing to stop his wife's brutality toward two Indonesian housekeepers will cost Mahender Sabhnani 40 months in federal prison and a $12,500 fine, a judge ruled yesterday.
Sabhnani, 51, and his wife, Varsha, 46, millionaire perfume magnates, were convicted in December on federal charges of beating, scalding, stabbing and starving the women, whom they paid only $100 a month.
Though Sabhnani was a witness to his wife's abuses, he had a "minimal role" in the crimes, said Judge Arthur Spatt.
Varsha Sabhnani - nicknamed "Cruella" in news headlines - was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison.
Pleading for leniency, Sabhnani implored the judge to consider the needs of his four children, ages 17 through 23, who were in the courtroom.
Sabhnani, who is scheduled to begin his term on Oct. 30, said nothing at all about the two victims, who have been identified as Samirah, 51, and Enung, 46.
During the trial last year, the women said they were starved, beaten with brooms and umbrellas, and forced to work 18 hours a day and sleep on mats in the kitchen of the Sabhnanis' $2 million Muttontown home.
