A Swiss court has sentenced four members of the Hinduja family, considered Britain’s richest, to prison for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva villa. The UK media reported it. The defendants, who were not present in court, were acquitted of human trafficking but convicted of other charges in a surprising verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated at £37 billion. Prakash Hinduja and his wife, Kamal, were each sentenced to four years and six months in prison, while their son Ajay and his wife, Namrata, received four-year sentences. The case – it is explained – stemmed from the family’s practice of bringing servants from their native India and includes among the charges that of the confiscation of the staff’s passports once they arrived in Switzerland. Prosecutors argued that the Hindujas paid their staff a pittance and gave them little freedom to leave their homes.
The family denied the accusations. The Hindujas reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the three employees who had made the allegations against them, but the prosecution decided to continue the case due to the seriousness of the allegations. In his closing speech, the prosecutor accused the family of abusing the “asymmetric situation” between employer and vulnerable employee to save money.
Domestic staff received a salary of between 220 and 400 Swiss francs a month, far below what they could have expected to earn in Switzerland. “They are taking advantage of the misery of the world,” said Geneva prosecutor Yves Bertossa. The Hinduja family’s defense lawyers argued that the three applicants received extensive benefits, were not held in solitary confinement and were free to leave the villa. “We are not dealing with mistreated slaves,” he declared. With interests in oil and gas, banking and healthcare, the Hinduja Group is present in 38 countries and employs around 200,000 people. Defense lawyers for the Hinduja family argued that the three applicants received extensive benefits, were not held in solitary confinement and were free to leave the villa.
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