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CEO accused of mistreating domestic employee settles case for $135,000

The chief executive of an IT staffing company with an Irvine office will pay $135,000 to settle claims she mistreated a former domestic employee, forcing the woman to sleep with the family dogs and work 15½-hour days, seven days a week.

The U.S. Labor Department filed a complaint Aug. 22 against Himanshu Bhatia, the CEO of Rose International. The company’s headquarters is in Chesterfield, Mo., but it also has an office at 18952 MacArthur Blvd.

Bhatia allegedly made domestic employee Sheela Ningwal “work and live in servitude, without any understanding of her rights as an employee or ability to adequately enforce her rights, since Ms.