A federal jury convicted six leaders in a quasi-religious group in a scheme that convinced parents to send their children to Kansas City, Kansas, for schooling but instead forced them to work long hours without pay and subjected them to beatings and other abuse.

Prosecutors said the group, which was labeled a cult by a federal judge in 2018, beat children and imposed severe dietary restrictions.

Six members of a Kansas-based cult have been convicted in a scheme to house children in overcrowded, rodent-infested facilities and force them to work up to 16 hours a day