New Jersey doctor’s license revoked after admitting he exploited undocumented women as ‘domestic servants’

A New Jersey doctor’s medical license was permanently revoked after she illegally recruited two Indian citizens to be her housekeepers for eight years, paying them next to nothing, denying them medical care and evading taxes she should have paid on their salaries. , state authorities said. he said Tuesday.

Harsha Sahniwhose Woodbridge rheumatology practice has since closed, pleaded guilty in February 2023 to conspiracy to conceal and harbor aliens and filing a false tax return. Last October, he received a sentence of 27 months in federal prison.

Sahni’s license was temporarily suspended in September 2023 while the state launched an administrative case against him, according to a news release from Attorney General Matthew Platkin’s office.

In their complaint, state authorities accused Sahni of violating professional standards and demonstrating an “appalling” lack of judgment and moral character. They allege that continuing their license “would be inconsistent with the health, safety and welfare of the public,” the statement states.

“There is no place in the medical profession for this type of criminal conduct and complete disregard for humanity,” Platkin said.

Sahni agreed to surrender his license in a final consent order filed with the State Board of Medical Examiners on Monday, a move considered tantamount to a permanent revocation.

The doctor required his victims, both undocumented, to work at his Tinton Falls home from 7 am to 10 pm every day, paying them and their families in India between $240 and $600 a month.

Sahni later admitted that he had forced both women to believe that they would be arrested or deported if they reported the criminal activity to authorities, and ordered them to tell other people that they were related to her and were visiting her as tourists.

He also prevented one of the women from receiving life-saving medical treatment, prosecutors said.

When the victim started having headaches after a car accident in 2014, Sahni initially told her it would be too expensive and legally complicated to see a doctor.

However, the headaches eventually became debilitating and Sahni took the woman to an emergency room, where she posed as her sister and acted as her translator. Doctors found an intact aneurysm in the woman’s brain and warned her, through Sahni, that immediate neurosurgical intervention would be necessary.

Without surgery, they made clear, he would risk dying.

But despite his “specialized medical knowledge,” prosecutors said, Sahni pressured the woman to leave the hospital against medical advice and finish her regular job as a housekeeper that night.

Sahni told the woman she could only have surgery after getting a replacement to work in the doctor’s home, according to the administrative complaint.

Sahni also admitted in court that he did not disclose the work done by the victims on his personal income tax return and that he did not pay taxes related to the women’s work, even though they were his domestic employees.

In addition to her prison sentence, Sahni was also sentenced to two years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $728,327. You must also pay up to $200,000 for specific medical bills.