By: Richard L. Smith
A Burlington County woman has been sentenced to 45 months in federal prison for orchestrating a coercive scheme that forced two victims to work as domestic laborers and provide childcare in her Moorestown home, according to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bolaji Bolarinwa, 51, was previously convicted on two counts of forced labor, one count of alien harboring for financial gain, and two counts of document servitude following a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Karen M. Williams in Camden federal court.
On top of her prison sentence, Bolarinwa was ordered to serve three years of supervised release, pay a $35,000 fine, and provide $87,518.72 in restitution to her victims.
The Justice Department detailed that between December 2015 and October 2016, Bolarinwa, originally from Nigeria but now a U.S. citizen, exploited two women she had recruited to the United States.
Upon the arrival of the first victim in December 2015, Bolarinwa confiscated her passport and subjected her to a daily cycle of forced labor through threats, verbal abuse, isolation, and constant monitoring, leaving the victim to work nearly nonstop for almost a year.
In April 2016, Bolarinwa brought a second victim into the country on a student visa.
Authorities said she again seized the victim’s passport and forced her into household labor and childcare, this time relying more on physical abuse to maintain control.
Both victims remained trapped in Bolarinwa’s home until October 2016, when the second victim alerted a college professor, who then notified the FBI.
Judge Williams handed down the sentence in Camden federal court, marking the conclusion of a case that highlighted the severe impact of human trafficking and forced labor even within private homes.