Four members of Britain’s richest family have received jail sentences after being found guilty of exploiting their vulnerable domestic workers and providing unauthorised employment.
Indian-born tycoon Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal, along with their son Ajay and his wife Namrata, were, however, cleared by a Swiss court of more serious charges of human trafficking linked to their servants.
The court ruled the servants, who were mostly illiterate Indians and worked at their lakeside villa in Geneva, knew what they were getting into.
The four family members were sentenced to between four and four-and-a-half years in prison.
The lawyers representing the defendants said they would appeal.
In their defence, the Hinduja family’s legal team stated the staff were treated respectfully and provided with accommodation.
The four were accused of seizing workers’ passports, paying them in rupees – not Swiss francs – barring them from leaving the villa and forcing them to work excruciatingly long hours for a pittance in Switzerland, among other things.
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The defendants were not in court in Geneva though a fifth defendant – Najib Ziazi, the family’s business manager – was in attendance. He received an 18-month suspended sentence.
It emerged last week in criminal court the family – which has roots in India – had reached an undisclosed settlement with the plaintiffs. Geneva prosecutors opened the case for alleged illegal activity including exploitation, human trafficking and violation of Swiss labour laws.
What did the prosecution allege?
The prosecution said the workers – who were in jobs such as cooks or house help – were sometimes forced to work up to 18 hours a day with little or no holiday time off.
And their pay was less than one-tenth of the comparable amount required under Swiss law, it was alleged.
Employees worked even later hours for receptions and slept in the basement of the villa in the upscale Cologny neighbourhood – sometimes on a mattress on the floor, prosecutors said. They described a “climate of fear” brought by Kamal Hinduja.
Some workers allegedly spoke only Hindi and were paid their wages in Indian rupees in banks back home that they could not access.
The Hinduja family, led by Gopi Hinduja, topped the 2024 Sunday Times rich list with a combined wealth of £37.196bn.
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