Jail in a gilded cage: Forced labor case raises doubts anew

NEW YORK (AP) — Dan Zhong's two-story home in Livingston, New Jersey, is unremarkable by suburban standards, but the businessman's lawyers have told a judge he is willing to pay $144,000 per month to turn the place into a private jail where he can comfortably await trial on charges he exploited immigrant Chinese laborers.

Zhong, 47, a former Chinese diplomat and legal U.S. resident, is accused of forcing immigrants to work on construction projects at Chinese diplomatic facilities in the U.S.

Former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn posted $5 million bail so he could stay, under guard, in his Manhattan townhouse in 2011 until charges accusing him of sexually assaulting a hotel maid were dropped.

[...] a judge released Chinese billionaire Ng Lap Seng on $50 million bail so he could live in his $4 million Manhattan apartment, under 24-hour watch by two $200-per-hour security guards, while awaiting trial in a bribery case involving the United Nations.

Berman called it "unreasonable because it helps to foster inequity and unequal treatment in favor of a very small cohort of criminal defendants who are extremely wealthy."

A letter from Guidepost Solutions, a firm headed by former federal prosecutors, lays out the strict conditions for guarding Zhong, including installing alarms, sensors and cameras at his home and instructing his guards to take cellphones from any visitors — and even use "reasonable force" to keep him from fleeing.