On Friday (June 21), a Swiss court acquitted four members of Britain’s wealthiest the Hinduja family, of human trafficking charges related to their treatment of domestic staff.
The charges were filed against Prakash, Kamal, Ajay, and Namrata Hinduja. They were accused of bringing in numerous Indian laborers, confiscating their passports, and making them work 16-hour shifts without overtime pay at their villa. The Hindujas’ lawyers have denied these accusations.
The Hinduja family oversees a global conglomerate with significant interests in banking, oil and gas, real estate, automobile manufacturing, and healthcare. The Sunday Times of London recently ranked them as Britain’s richest family, with a net worth of £37 billion ($47 billion).
Prosecutor alleges Hinduja family spent more on pet than domestic worker
Swiss media reported that during the trial’s opening arguments on June 10, chief prosecutor Yves Bertossa claimed the family allocated more funds for a pet than for a domestic helper’s wages.
The initial indictment stated that some domestic workers were paid as little as $120. Many of these workers came from poor Indian families and worked “from dawn until late in the evening” without overtime compensation.
The accusation noted that their wages, significantly below Geneva’s minimum wage for domestic workers, were deposited in Indian bank accounts that were hard for them to access.
The Hinduja family, according to the prosecution, allegedly confiscated the workers’ passports and forbade them from leaving the property, where they slept in a windowless basement room on bunk beds.
The charges also claimed that the staff had to be on call at all times, even when they traveled to France and Monaco to work in similar conditions.
Hinduja family lawyer Romain Jordan dismissed the allegations as “exaggerated and biased.” In a statement released on Wednesday, he said, “The members of the Hinduja family vigorously deny these allegations and remain determined to defend themselves.”