On Friday, a millionaire who was born in India and three family members received prison sentences for abusing domestic helpers at their lakefront Swiss estate. The abuse included passport confiscation, preventing the workers from leaving the house, and forcing them to work up to eighteen hours a day.
More severe accusations of human trafficking against 79-year-old businessman Prakash Hinduja, his wife Kamal, son Ajay, and daughter-in-law Namrata were dropped by a Swiss court on the grounds that the laborers, for the most part, knew what they were getting into. The four were sentenced to four and a half years in jail.
The majority of the laborers were illiterate Indians who received payment in Indian rupees rather than Swiss francs, which were kept in banks they couldn’t access back home.
The defendants’ attorneys declared that they will file an appeal.
The court’s dismissal of the trafficking allegations, according to Kamal Hinduja’s attorney Robert Assael, “relieved” him, but he termed the penalty disproportionate.
“Our clients are elderly people with very poor health,” he stated, providing an explanation for the family’s absence from court. He said that the family was with Hinduja’s 75-year-old wife, who was receiving intensive treatment.
Najib Ziazi, the family’s business manager, was the fifth defendant and was given an 18-month suspended sentence.
The family and the claimants struck an undisclosed settlement, according to information revealed in court last week. Diamonds, rubies, a platinum necklace, and other jewels and assets have been taken by Swiss authorities, who may use them to cover court costs and potential fines.
Prakash Hinduja, together with his three brothers, is the head of an industrial conglomerate that operates in the media, real estate, information technology, and healthcare industries. The Hinduja family’s estimated net worth, according to Forbes magazine, is $20 billion.
In the 1980s, the family moved to Switzerland, and Hinduja was found guilty of the same crimes in 2007. For her part, Hinduja, who became a Swiss citizen in 2000, is currently facing a separate tax lawsuit initiated by Swiss authorities.
In this instance, the court found the four guilty of paying salaries that were less than a tenth of what such occupations would cost in Switzerland, provided scant, if any, health benefits, and abusing the workers by providing unlicensed employment.
According to the prosecution, Kamal Hinduja created a “climate of fear” among the staff. They were compelled to work long hours for receptions and had little to no vacation time. Sometimes they slept on a mattress on the floor in the basement.
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