A Ukrainian man is suing a Livermore couple, saying they forced him to work on their home without pay for about 15 months, seized more than $2,100 in stipends from Catholic Charities, and kept his dog after kicking him out of their home.

Oleksandr Bulatov, 36, filed a civil lawsuit last week in U.S. District Court alleging that Kathryn and Michael Cook, of Livermore, “lured him into a predatory living and working situation under the pretense of an opportunity to earn good money for his two daughters in Ukraine.”

He arrived in Maine in November 2022 based on an agreement with Kathryn Cook, who sponsored him for immigration, according to the lawsuit. Bulatov is deaf and has limited English, and says the Cooks took advantage of his struggle to communicate through text messages and Google translate.

He also is suing Michael Cook’s cousin Chris Botka, who owns Maine Mountain Maple in Rangeley, where Bulatov said the Cooks also forced him to work for a couple of months without pay. Botka told a reporter Monday that he didn’t have time to speak by phone and he did not respond to an email asking for a response to Bulatov’s allegations.

Kathryn Cook also did not respond to a Facebook message from a reporter Monday asking for a response to the allegations. The Cooks’ attorney, L. Clinton Boothby, did not respond to a message Monday afternoon asking about the lawsuit.

Bulatov was kicked out of the Cooks’ home in February and is now living in Auburn, said his attorney, Nicolas Groenveld-Meijer of Pine Tree Legal Assistance. Groenveld-Meijer said Monday that the Cooks still have not returned Bulatov’s dog.

ONE-WAY TICKET

Bulatov and his dog, Malta, arrived in Maine two years ago at Kathryn Cook’s invitation, the complaint states; they knew each other through mutual friends, and she bought him a one-way ticket.

Bulatov says Cook promised to connect him with a job at a cannabis growing operation. He said he has experience in growing and wanted to raise roughly $35,000 in two years to send back to his daughters in Ukraine so they could buy property. Cook said in texts to Bulatov that she knew the owner of a dispensary near their home and that her daughter had “connections” to growers, according to the lawsuit, but she never made any introductions.

Instead, the complaint alleges, she had Bulatov perform a number of tasks around the home. He maintained their lawn, fixed their fence, did carpentry and cleaned the house. She took roughly $2,150 from monthly stipends he received from Catholic Charities “as a condition of remaining in her home,” the complaint states.

In February 2023, Bulatov started work at Botka’s maple operation in Rangeley. Kathryn Cook told him he would get paid, but he never received any money, the complaint alleges. He refused to go back after two months.

That upset Kathryn Cook, according to the complaint.

“I don’t regret spending so much money to bring you and Malta here,” a text from Kathryn Cook said. “But what amazes me is that you won’t work for something even if you don’t like it, to get what you want in the end. … This is the rule of immigrants to America.”

ISOLATED IN LIVERMORE

Cook told Bulatov that her parents immigrated here from Ukraine, too, according to texts including in court documents. She implied that working at the maple farm would help him get his green card and that without it, he risked being deported soon. The complaint alleges she sent various texts that were intended to make him feel guilty or fearful.

“I am a person! I want to be considered,” Bulatov replied in one text, with help from Google Translate. “Someone decided that I should do volunteer work, didn’t tell me and didn’t ask me.”

Bulatov said he asked for a ticket back to Poland, where he was living before coming to the United States, but that Kathryn Cook refused because it was too expensive.

Groenveld-Meijer said Bulatov was isolated while at the Cooks’ home, by both its rural location and his inability to communicate.

Groenveld-Meijer said that while labor trafficking isn’t rare, court cases aren’t common, often because people don’t recognize it right away, and it’s less sensational than other forms of trafficking, like sex trafficking. He said that Bulatov’s complaint should carry extra weight because it was notarized, and Bulatov swore to every claim under oath.

“It definitely exists. It’s just a little harder to recognize and to find sometimes,” he said. “I think in this case, (Bulatov) had isolation compounded by his deafness, his lack of language ability, a relatively remote location in Livermore. I think these things contributed to his sense of isolation.”