Farm owners face trial in November

[dkf]

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20100910_Farm_owners_face_trial_in_November.html

The owners of Aloun Farms say they know the 44 workers they imported from Thailand in 2004 were lied to in order to get them to sign worthless labor contracts and that the workers each paid exorbitant recruitment fees to get the jobs.

But brothers Alec Souphone Sou, president and general manager of the farm, and Mike Mankone Sou, vice president and operations manager, say they did not receive any of the recruitment fee money and are not the ones who lied to the workers.

Because they had previously signed documents admitting that they did lie to the workers, a federal judge rejected their plea agreements yesterday and scheduled trial for November. Each brother faces one count of conspiracy to commit forced labor and two counts of exploiting the Thai workers.

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In the plea agreements they signed in front of a U.S. magistrate judge in January, Alec and Mike Sou admitted that, as part of the conspiracy to commit forced labor, they told the workers when they arrived in Hawaii in September 2004 that the contracts they signed to work on the farm were just pieces of paper. They then paid the workers wages that were less than what the contracts promised.