A Swiss court is due to rule on Friday on whether Britain's richest family can face human trafficking charges over allegations they exploited domestic workers at their luxury Geneva villa.
Prosecutors have charged four members of the Hinduja family — Prakash Hinduja, Kamal Hinduja, Ajay Hinduja and Namrata Hinduja — with trafficking several workers from India, confiscating their passports and making them work 16-hour days without overtime at their villas. Lawyers for the Hindujas deny the charges.
The Hindujas control multinational conglomerates in car manufacturing, banking, oil and gas, real estate and healthcare, and The Sunday Times of London recently ranked them as Britain's richest family, estimating their net worth at 37 billion pounds ($47 billion).
Arguments in the highly-anticipated trial began on June 10, with lead prosecutor Yves Bertossa arguing that the family's budget for pets was more than the salary of a housekeeper, according to Swiss media reports.
Some domestic workers were paid as little as 10,000 rupees (about $120 in today's currency) a month, according to the indictment. Many of the workers were from poor families in India and were made to work “from dawn until late into the night” without overtime pay, the indictment said. Their wages, well below the minimum wage for domestic workers in Geneva, were allegedly deposited in bank accounts in India that were not easily accessible.
Prosecutors allege that the Hindujas confiscated the maids' passports and ordered them not to leave the villa, where they slept in bunk beds in a windowless basement. The maids were expected to be available at all times, including during trips to France and Monaco, where they worked under similar conditions, according to the indictment.
Roman Jordan, a lawyer representing the Hinduja family, denied the allegations, calling them “exaggerated and biased.”
“The Hinduja family strongly denies these allegations and is committed to defending itself,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
A civil lawsuit involving the lead plaintiffs, who worked for the family, was settled last week, according to Swiss media reports. Jordan declined to comment on the terms but said the agreement was “confidential” and that the plaintiffs had dropped their cases.
In the criminal case, which is due to be sentenced on Friday, prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of up to five and a half years and millions of francs in fines and damages, according to Swiss media.
Three Hinduja brothers head the family conglomerate, two of whom are based in the UK and across Europe. The family owns extensive properties in London, including a 25-bedroom mansion and the five-star Raffles Hotel in the historic former Government Building (formerly the War Ministry).
The eldest of the brothers, Shrichand P. Hinduja, co-chairman of the Hinduja Group, died last May at age 87. His death came after a long-running battle between factions of the family for control of the family assets.
