Prosecutors claimed four members of family paid staff a pittance and gave them little freedom to leave Geneva mansion
A Swiss court has handed jail sentences to four members of Britain’s richest family for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva mansion.
The Hindujas, who were not present in court, were acquitted of human trafficking but convicted of other charges on Friday in a stunning verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated at £37bn.
Prakash Hinduja and his wife, Kamal, were each sentenced to four years and six months in prison, and their son Ajay and his wife, Namrata, received four-year terms.
I will never understand the giga-rich. They could afford to hire round-the-clock help at rates that both buy expertise and inspire loyalty. Your house staff know where the bodies are buried, maybe literally—there's no world where it makes sense to pay them less than six figures. Remember, $100,000 is 0.01% of $1,000,000,000, or about 0.003% of their estimated net worth of $37B. They could hire an extra maid at $100,000/year and not even notice the expense.
But they can afford even more than that. Splurge a little. Hire a specialist in early childhood education to tutor your kids. Get a chef who graduated from a renowned culinary school. They could afford to spend millions on salary. Why skimp? What do they think they are saving up for?
You know it's bad when even a two thousand year old gospel considers "rich people don't go to heaven" to be divine wisdom. It has always been thus.
There's no way the CEO of my last company - making a cool 6mil one year that I saw an article about the shareholders paying him a bonus of another few mil - works 125 times as hard as my 48k (gross) ass.
I think you have a little of that, and a little of this showing that the giga-rich didn't get that way because they are these perfect human multi-specialty geniuses like they all claim.
Sure, maybe they're pretty bright in one or two areas. Many successful people are. But they also do real stupid, shortsighted shit like this all the time. They got as rich as they did not on merit, but on family wealth, luck, and exploiting the labor of others.
That's what I don't understand either. It can't just be about money at that point right? Like they must intentionally be trying to bring back slavery or something.
Get a chef who graduated from a renowned culinary school.
That's what a friend of mine does - he is rarely home because the rich family that employs him want him on hand 24/7 and they pay accordingly. They get top notch food whenever they want it and are pretty safe from getting their food spat in. The Hindujas have probably ingested a lot of phlegm over the years. Should be good practice if they ever actually end up in prison.
Prakash Hinduja is Indian born Swiss. His brother S.P Hinduja was Indian born British and the billionaire head on the Hinduja company until his death last year. The company itself is Indian, so the British connection died last year and was somebody not involved in the case. This was a Swiss trial of a swiss family.
Plus... Let's face it. People with this level of money choose their nationality based on financial or business reasons. Wherever gives them the best tax break.
A Swiss court has handed jail sentences to four members of Britain’s richest family for exploiting Indian staff at their Geneva mansion.
The Hindujas, who were not present in court, were acquitted of human trafficking but convicted of other charges on Friday in a stunning verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated at £37bn.
The case stemmed from the family’s practice of bringing servants from their native India and included accusations of confiscating the staff’s passports once they had arrived in Switzerland.
The Hindujas reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the three employees who had made the accusations against them, but the prosecution decided to pursue the case owing to the gravity of the charges.
In his closing address, the prosecutor accused the family of abusing the “asymmetrical situation” between powerful employer and vulnerable employee to save money.
The Hinduja family’s defence lawyers argued that the three plaintiffs received ample benefits, were not kept in isolation and were free to leave the villa.
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