Minnesota Woman Lili Huang Charged With Treating Chinese Nanny Like Slave

A Minnesota woman named Lili Huang has been slapped with five felony counts after she was found to have kept her Chinese nanny in slavery-like conditions.

According to Star Tribune, a complaint filed with a court in Washington County shows that Huang starved and physically abused the 53-year-old woman from Shanghai, China. Huang, who brought the woman to the U.S. in March to look after her children in her Woodbury home, also overworked the nanny without pay and barred her from leaving the property.

The victim, who does not understand English, told the police through an interpreter that she escaped after Huang threatened her with a knife when she spilled food on Wednesday, June 13, Pioneer Press reported. The woman was found wandering the street on Thursday by police officers with several injuries to her face and black eyes. She reportedly told the cops that she was attempting to locate the airport so that she could make her way back to China.

Police later raided Huang’s home and arrested her. One detective noted that the victim appeared scared of Huang during their interview at the police station, Star Tribune reported.

Lili Huang facing #labor#trafficking in Washington Co, MN. Prosecutors: abused, forced Chinese woman into nanny work pic.twitter.com/5f9wj0Rnwc

— F A R R A H F A Z A L (@FarrahFazal) July 15, 2016

Lili Huang is facing five charges including labor trafficking, false imprisonment, and assault causing bodily harm, CBS Local reported.

According to the complaint, the woman told the cops that she had been working for Huang’s family in China, where she was treated well before she was offered the job in the U.S., Star Tribune reported.

Huang reportedly offered to pay the nanny $890 monthly to work for her. However, after arriving in the U.S. earlier this year, the nanny claims to have been subjected to up to 18 hours of work each day performing child care duties and house chores. She was not paid for her services.

Huang also abused the nanny routinely. In one incident early this month, Huang allegedly slammed the nanny’s head into a table. She also kicked her while she was on the floor, Star Tribune reported. According to the complaint, the nanny was beaten so severely once that she could not stand up. Huang then forced her to walk on her hands and knees around the house for up to four hours, Pioneer Press reported.

The abused nanny claims to have once asked Lili Huang’s husband to buy her a plane ticket so that she could return to China, but instead, her passport was seized and he told her she was not leaving, the Daily Mail reported. While searching Huang’s property, investigators found the victim’s passport in Huang’s purse.

According to the complaint, an examination of the victim at United Hospital in St. Paul revealed that she had several broken bones. According to Pioneer Press, some of her ribs and her sternum were found to have been fractured. The woman also provided authorities with several images taken with a phone showing injuries on her body apparently from Huang’s beatings, Star Tribune reported. The victim is said to have lost about 32 pounds since arriving in the U.S. to work for Huang about four months ago.

Washington County Attorney Pete Orput, who has condemned the incident, has said that Huang kept the victim in a very bad condition.

“She was held in pretty appalling conditions, in appalling discipline,” he said.

Investigators reportedly found a bag containing the victim’s hair under her bed in Huang’s home during their search. The victim told the police that she was hiding the hair, which was ripped off while Huang assaulted her so that she would not be forced to eat it.

Lili Huang is being held in jail. Her bail has been set at $1 million or $350,000 with the conditions that she would submit her passport and is monitored electronically.

[Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]