Woman Sentenced in Modern-Day Slavery Case

A federal judge in Atlanta has sentenced former Suwanee resident Bidemi Bello, a Nigerian national, to 11 years and eight months in prison for what has been described as "a shocking case of modern-day slavery."

Bello's U.S. citizenship also was revoked in the sentencing by Judge William S. Duffey Jr., according to a news release. Bello, 42, was convicted in June on charges of forced labor, trafficking with respect to forced labor, document servitude, harboring for financial gain, and unlawful procurement of naturalization.

Her prison term will be followed by three years of supervised release. Bello has been ordered to pay $144,200 in restitution. She was ordered to be deported from the United States upon completion of her sentence.

According to U.S. Attorney Sally Quillan Yates, the evidence at trial showed that on twice, Bello returned to Nigeria and recruited two young women to return with her to the United States to work as her nanny and maid. 

The first victim traveled with Bello in October 2001 when she was 17, using a fraudulent British passport that Bello had obtained. The second victim traveled with an associate of Bello to the United States in November 2004 when she was 20, also using a fraudulent British passport. Each victim testified that she never held her own travel documentation and did not know how the passports had been obtained.

Bello had promised the young women and their families that she would send them to school in the United States. Instead, Bello physically and emotionally abused both women, controlled their access to the outside world, and routinely treated them inhumanely.

Evidence showed the women were beaten and forced to eat spoiled and moldy food, and on one occasion, forced to eat their own vomit.