A Qatari couple who brought their Filipino maid with them when they took up residence in Cambridge had to pay a $3,000 fine for not realizing that in the United States, you're not supposed to withhold a worker's wages or passport when she says she wants to quit, let alone threaten to ship her back to your home country and deal with her there, according to the Massachusetts Attorney General's office.

Local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies teamed up to investigate the actions of Mohammed and Adeela Alyafei, the Attorney General's office reports:

An investigation began in March after there were allegations that a woman had been held against her will and not paid wages by her employers in Cambridge. The investigation revealed that the Alyafeis had travelled from Qatar to Cambridge with their family and brought a domestic worker with them to help care for their children. Once in Cambridge, the Alyafeis failed to pay the worker for several weeks of work. After the worker requested her wages and asked to return home to the Philippines, the Alyafeis demanded her passport, immediately bought her plane ticket back to Qatar, and threatened to punish her upon her return.

All of that was a violation of the Massachusetts wage and hour and domestic-worker laws, officials say.