Senior Turkish diplomats accused of human trafficking, fraud in Washington, D.C., court
Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
Nordicmonitor.com
The second-highest ranking diplomat at Turkey’s embassy in Washington, D.C., along with his wife, also a diplomat, has been accused of human trafficking, fraud, unjust enrichment, breach of contract and violations of US labor and wage laws.
In a civil suit filed on May 5 in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Hüsnü Sinan Ertay, the former deputy chief of mission at the Turkish Embassy, and his wife, Anıl Özge Ertay, a diplomatic counselor, were accused of exploiting their housekeeper and nanny, Sharon Thomas Agdipa, a Philippine national.
The diplomatic couple resided in a million-dollar, 1,330-square-foot townhouse in a gated community on Embassy Park Drive NW in the Washington neighborhood of Wesley Heights. They stand accused of trafficking Sharon Thomas Agdipa, who claims she was lured from the Philippines to the US with promises of a job, fair wages and a private room, only to be subjected to forced labor.
According to her lawyers, she endured emotional and physical suffering, was deprived of regular meals, denied a private bedroom, grossly underpaid, threatened with deportation and frequently subjected to verbal abuse. She was also prohibited from socializing with other nannies.
The two diplomats are no longer posted to the Turkish Embassy, having been reassigned to senior positions at the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s headquarters in Ankara early this year or at the end of last year. Mr. Ertay currently serves as head of department at the Directorate General for East Asia.
Mrs. Ertay is also based in Ankara, serving as head of department at the Directorate General for North America at the Turkish Foreign Ministry. Her responsibilities include meeting with US officials, academics and representatives from think tanks.
Sources in the Turkish diplomatic community who spoke to Nordic Monitor expressed little surprise at the charges, citing the nature and character of the Ertay couple. “Mrs. Ertay is known to be a vicious person among her colleagues,” one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Other sources claimed that her husband secured his position at the foreign ministry largely due to his father’s influential role as deputy undersecretary responsible for personnel.
According to the complaint, Agdipa’s ordeal began in November 2019, when Mrs. Ertay offered her a job in Washington, D.C. However, when Agdipa began working for the couple in February 2020, her duties extended beyond caring for their 5-year-old son to include various housekeeping tasks, from cleaning and cooking to gardening.
Although her contract specified a 35-hour workweek at $14 an hour, Agdipa was working over 80 hours a week and was required to remain on standby at all hours to accommodate the couple’s demands. She received no compensation for overtime, a clear violation of the contract’s terms.
The suit alleges that the couple compelled Agdipa to return a portion of her salary by instructing her to withdraw cash from an ATM and hand it back to them.
For instance, in June 2020, the Ertays initially sent Agdipa two payments totaling $1,960 for her monthly salary, as stipulated in the contract. However, shortly thereafter, they drove her to an ATM, where they forced her to withdraw $1,350 and hand it over to them. As a result, Agdipa received only $610 for that month.
Over the course of 15 months of working for the couple, Agdipa was required to return approximately one-third of her total wages, amounting to $9,450.
The couple was abusive toward her, using insults and curses, threatening to evict her and inflicting emotional and psychological distress.
The Turkish couple also took steps to prevent Agdipa from sounding the alarm when she spoke with the Office of Foreign Missions (OFM) at the State Department, which was performing a standard check on her treatment and the couple’s compliance with the contract terms. The Ertays were present during OFM phone call, instructing Agdipa to falsely claim that she was receiving the agreed-upon salary and payment terms, despite their knowledge of their non-compliance with the contract.
When the minimum wage for domestic workers increased in July 2020, the Ertays issued a revised contract for Agdipa that reflected the higher salary. However, in practice, the terms of this updated contract were never fully implemented, just as with the initial contract.
At times the Ertay couple threatened to call the police and immigration officials, saying they would have her deported if she complained about the working conditions or attempted to leave for other employment.
“The Ertays exploited Ms. Agdipa’s immigration status and lack of knowledge about US labor laws to manipulate her and control her, threatening her with additional harm for failure to meet these demands,” the complaint alleges.
Agdipa was also denied regular meals contrary to the contract, was not allowed to prepare her own food and was refused medical care and sick leave when needed.
Although the contract stipulated that she would receive private room and board, Agdipa was assigned to sleep in a windowless basement. This space was regularly accessed by the Turkish deputy chief of mission, who used it as a makeshift closet and frequently used the bathroom there, despite the presence of bathrooms on the upper floors of the house.
“Mr. Ertay would require Ms. Agdipa to vacate the basement in the early morning and late-night hours, so that he could use the bathroom to get ready before leaving for work and again upon returning home from work,” the complaint states.
She was also forbidden from making friends or speaking with other nannies in the neighborhood and was reprimanded when the Ertays caught her socializing with others. “The Ertays created an environment of isolation and constant surveillance,” the complaint alleges.
On May 5, 2021, the abusive treatment escalated to the point where Agdipa felt she had no option but to flee, leaving most of her belongings behind and seeking refuge with a Filipina acquaintance in the neighborhood. After being informed about the terrible ordeal Agdipa had endured at the hands of the two Turkish diplomats, the labor attaché at the Embassy of the Philippines in Washington intervened, referring Agdipa to legal services that would be able to help her remain safe from the Ertays and begin to rebuild her life.
The US government was notified of the case when Agdipa testified about the abuse and forced labor she had endured. However, to date, no criminal charges have been filed against the diplomats by the US authorities.
The actions of the Ertays — ranging from recruiting Agdipa and convincing her to travel to the US, to threatening her with deportation and stealing her wages — violate multiple laws. These include the federal Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA), the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the D.C. Minimum Wage Revision Act (DCMWRA) and the DC Wage Payment and Collection Law (DCWPCL). Moreover, their conduct is alleged to have involved breaches of contract, unjust enrichment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud, as outlined in the lawsuit.
On May 20 Agdipa’s attorneys — Olamide S. Orebamjo, Melissa L. Patterson and Elizabeth S. Fassih of the Jones Day law firm in Washington, D.C. — requested a trial by jury from the district court. The future course of the legal case remains uncertain, given that the Turkish couple has returned to Turkey and enjoyed diplomatic immunity during their service in the US capital.
A somewhat similar case in 2013 involved Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade, the then-deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate General in New York City. US authorities filed charges against her for the abuse of Indian domestic worker Sangeeta Richard. Khobragade was arrested but subsequently released due to her diplomatic immunity. The US requested a waiver of immunity, which was denied by India. She eventually left the US.
Interestingly, it was Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York at the time, who filed charges against Khobragade. Bharara also indicted Turkish-Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab and Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a senior official at Turkish state lender Halkbank, in May 2016 for a scheme to circumvent US sanctions on Iran. This case made Bharara a target of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was also implicated in the sanctions-busting scheme.
