A 43-page indictment, shared during proceedings, told how the Hindujas, whose family is worth an estimated £37 billion, subjected their staff to Dickensian employment practices.
Early one morning, police cars sweep along the shore of Lake Geneva to an exclusive suburb named Cologny, where they turn right, climb a few steep residential streets, and grind to a halt outside one of the neighbourhood's many imposing sets of security gates.
Police, apparently acting on a tip-off, are simultaneously raiding the offices of a local bank, as well as several other nearby companies that belong to the sprawling global empire controlled by Prakash and his three brothers. A 43-page indictment, shared during proceedings, told how the Hindujas, whose family is worth an estimated £37 billion, subjected their staff to Dickensian employment practices, treating them like indentured servants in a contemptible display of avarice and tight-fistedness.
Ajay and his wife Kamal each received four and a half year sentences. The pair are seen arriving into court in January 2024 It told how staff were driven directly to the family's compound upon arrival in Geneva, before having their passports confiscated by the family's elderly matriarch Kamal, who was accused of overseeing a 'climate of fear' at the property.
Some of the only times the victims could escape from the property came when they joined the retinue of staff who travelled with the Hindujas to their other luxury properties, which included a ski chalet in the Swiss alps and villa on the Cote d'Azur. The prosecutor said this was an effort to hoodwink the authorities. Astonishingly, their appalling treatment of staff was part of a pattern of unlawful behaviour that had been going on for two decades, the court heard.
In court, an army of highly paid lawyers sought to downplay the extent of their clients' criminality. Ajay's lawyer, Yael Hayat, argued that salaries alone didn't reflect the real pay of servants, since they were also provided with board and lodgings. Sentencing, Judge Sabina Mascotto said: 'They were exploited given their situation in India was so precarious and they were exploited as they didn't know the language, had their passports confiscated and were only ever paid every three to six months.
Their tale begins with Prakash's father, Parmanand Hinduja, a trader from Bombay who became rich exporting oil, cement and fertilisers to the Shah's Iran before handing over to his four sons. The brothers even shared ownership of various homes. Their 18th-century residence in London's Carlton House Terrace, near Buckingham Palace, is made up of four interconnected six-storey buildings, boasts 30 bedrooms, and is worth upwards of £250 million.
Yet just as money hasn't exactly made Prakash the most generous of employers, it has also not always brought the family happiness. Indeed, over the years, the Hinduja clan has occasionally found itself at the centre of scandal. After tying his wife to a bed and dousing them both in white spirit, he set himself alight. Mercifully, she managed to escape.Almost a decade later, in 2001, the Hindujas became embroiled in a political row when Peter Mandelson was forced to resign from the New Labour government amid allegations he had helped secure a British passport for Srichand for a £1 million donation to the 'spirit zone' at the Millennium Dome .
Mr Justice Hayden revealed that a family scrap over control of the firms had so divided the clan that members were unable to agree where the elderly billionaire ought to be treated or how his medical care should be financed. But recent events in Switzerland, where authorities have seized diamonds, rubies, a platinum necklace and other jewellery and assets from the family to cover legal fees and possible penalties, now suggest they may only just starting.
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