Men coerced to work in US weren’t allowed to eat if they didn’t do chores, feds say

Two young men who were “in search of a better future for themselves and their families” were lured to the U.S. by a man and woman who later confiscated their passports and took most of their wages, authorities said.

Now a couple — both U.S. residents and citizens of the Federated States of Micronesia — has been ordered to spend four years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, according to a March 20 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa. The man and woman are also ordered to repay $70,000 in restitution to the two men.

Nesly Mwarecheong, 46, and Bertino Weires, 51, previously pleaded guilty to “unlawful conduct with respect to documents in furtherance of trafficking or forced labor,” records show.

The defense attorney representing Mwarecheong did not immediately respond to a request for comment from McClatchy News on March 21.

Weires’ defense attorney explained his client came to the U.S. from Udot, Micronesia — which he described as “a poverty ridden minor island” where elder members control their family’s finances — “seeking a better life for his family.” Other family members later joined him in the U.S.

“Once other family members arrived, things took a sad turn for the worse,” attorney Al Parrish said in an email to McClatchy. “The control exercised by Mr. Weires violated the law. The excessive use of alcohol, language barriers and cultural issues created serious difficulties for all. Mr. Weires acknowledged his mistakes and took full responsibility for his conduct. He understands the conduct he engaged in ... is a criminal act with serious consequences.”

Authorities said Mwarecheong and Weires convinced the two men to leave Micronesia in December 2019. The couple promised them jobs in the U.S. and said they could send the money they earn to their families back home.

But once the men were in the U.S. with jobs at a meat processing plant in Ottumwa, Iowa, their passports were confiscated, authorities said.

“Each week, the defendants took the victims to cash their paychecks before seizing almost the entire amount and leaving the victims with a nominal amount each week,” officials said.

They worked six days a week, prosecutors said, then spent their off-time cooking and doing housework.

“If (the men) slept in or did not complete their tasks they were not allowed to eat,” prosecutors said in court records. Authorities referred to the those tasks as chores.

Authorities said Mwarecheong and Weires also imposed debts on the young men, limited their communication with family, isolated them from others and created “a system of total financial dependence.”

“In so doing, (they) created a situation where the victims either had to continue complying with the defendants’ demands or risk being homeless and without a means of supporting themselves in a foreign country where they did not speak the language and had no means of returning home,” according to the release.

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