Billionaire Hinduja family accused of human trafficking, confiscating staff passports

Key takeaways

• Members of the Hinduja family — elders Prakash and Kamal Hinduja, their son Ajay and his wife Namrata — face criminal charges of human trafficking and their trial began Monday, Bloomberg reported, days after settling a civil case brought by their staff regarding the allegations. exploitation of workers.
• Details of the agreement were not disclosed, but the parties reached an agreement Friday, six years after the civil suit was filed, over allegations they paid their staff, including educators, a fraction of local wages and allegedly forced them to work long hours illegally.
• The criminal charges relate to claims that the Hindujas smuggled staff in and out of Switzerland after confiscating their passports, that the servants were not allowed to leave the employer's house without permission and that they were paid for their work in India, meaning they had no Swiss money and therefore little freedom to visit the country, according to Bloomberg.
• Yael Hayat, Ajay Hinduja's lawyer, reportedly told the court that claims of an 18-hour workday were exaggerated and that wages, found to be less than $8 a day, “cannot simply be reduced that they were paid in cash” because the staff's food and accommodation were paid for by the family.
• Prosecutors are seeking multi-year prison sentences for the four members of the Hinduja family and want to demand that a compensation fund worth millions of dollars be created for the staff members.
• Lawyers for the Hinduja family have rejected the allegations, saying the family members themselves were not involved in hiring or day-to-day management of the staff.
• Romain Jordan, the family's lawyer, said in a statement to Forbes that the criminal charge is “excessive” and accused the prosecutor of being biased against the Hindujas: “No other family would have been treated this way.” Our clients remain committed to defending themselves and trusting the justice system,” he said.