HONOLULU (AP) — A federal judge has set bail at $1 million for the CEO of a labor recruiting company accused of importing and exploiting 400 workers from Thailand.
Forty-five-year-old Mordechai Orian, head of Los Angeles-based Global Horizons Manpower Inc., was ordered Wednesday to be held in federal custody until he can raise the money.
KITV reports federal prosecutors claim Orian, an Israeli national, is a flight risk. They had sought to keep him in custody until his trial, and they plan to appeal.
Orian is accused in what the FBI calls the largest human-trafficking case charged in U.S. history.
He was indicted last week on charges that he lured the workers with false promises of lucrative jobs, then confiscated their passports, failed to honor their employment contracts and threatened to deport them.
His public relations agency has said he complied with the FBI in negotiating his surrender in Honolulu.
___
Information from: KITV-TV, http://www.kitv.com/index.html
