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Let's talk about Indians
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Members of Britain’s richest family get jail terms for exploiting Indian staff at Swiss mansion
Ajay Hinduja (left) and his wife Namrata arriving with lawyer Robert Assael at the courthouse in Geneva on June 10. PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Updated
Jun 22, 2024
GENEVA – A Swiss court handed jail sentences to four members of Britain’s richest family on June 21 for exploiting the Indian staff at their Geneva mansion.
The Hindujas – who were not present in court – were acquitted of human trafficking, but convicted of other charges in a stunning verdict for the family, whose fortune is estimated at £37 billion (S$63.4 billion).
Prakash Hinduja and his wife Kamal each got four years and six months, while their son Ajay and his wife Namrata received four-year terms, the presiding judge in Geneva ruled.
The cases stem from the family’s practice of bringing servants from their native India and included accusations of confiscating their passports once they were flown to Switzerland.
Prosecutors argued the family paid their staff a pittance and gave them little freedom to leave the house.
The family denied the allegations, claiming the prosecutors wanted to “do in the Hindujas”.
The family reached a confidential out-of-court settlement with the three employees who made the accusations against them.
Despite this, the prosecution decided to pursue the case because of the gravity of the charges.
Geneva prosecutor Yves Bertossa had requested a custodial sentence of 5½ years against Prakash and Kamal Hinduja.
Aged 78 and 75, respectively, both had been absent since the start of the trial for health reasons.
In his closing address, the prosecutor accused the family of abusing the “asymmetrical situation” between powerful employer and vulnerable employee to save money.
Household staff were paid a salary of between 220 Swiss francs (S$330) and 400 Swiss francs a month, far below what they could expect to earn in Switzerland.
“They’re profiting from the misery of the world,” Mr Bertossa told the court.
‘Not mistreated slaves’
But the family’s defence lawyers argued that the three plaintiffs received ample benefits, were not kept in isolation and were free to leave the mansion.“We are not dealing with mistreated slaves,” Mr Nicolas Jeandin told the court.
Indeed, the employees “were grateful to the Hindujas for offering them a better life”, his fellow lawyer, Mr Robert Assael, argued.
Lawyers Yael Hayat (centre right), Robert Assael (third from right) and Nicolas Jeandin (second from right) arriving at court with their clients Ajay Hinduja (second from left) and his wife Namrata (centre left). PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Representing Ajay Hinduja, lawyer Yael Hayat had slammed the “excessive” indictment, arguing the trial should be a question of “justice, not social justice”.
Namrata Hinduja’s lawyer, Mr Romain Jordan, also pleaded for acquittal, claiming the prosecutors were aiming to make an example of the family.
He argued that the prosecution had failed to mention payments made to staff on top of their cash salaries.
Mr Assael said: “No employee was cheated out of his or her salary.”
Some staff even asked for raises, which they received.
With interests in oil and gas, banking and healthcare, the Hinduja Group is present in 38 countries and employs around 200,000 people. AFP
India college entrance exam scandal spreads with criminal probe
A student shouts as she protests outside the Ministry of Education at New Delhi on June 20. PHOTO: REUTERS
Jun 24, 2024
NEW DELHI – India’s government launched a criminal investigation into allegations of cheating and corruption in national entrance exams for medical colleges and removed the head of the agency in charge of handling the tests as student protests over the growing scandal continued to mount.
The Central Bureau of Investigation said on June 23 that it will probe alleged irregularities, “including conspiracy, cheating, impersonation, breach of trust, and destruction of evidence by candidates, institutes, and middlemen”.
A day earlier, the government replaced the director-general of the National Testing Agency, Mr Subodh Kumar Singh, with immediate effect.
The decision follows mounting pressure from opposition parties and protests by thousands of students demanding a cancellation of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission into undergraduate medical programmes for the current academic year, which are set by the federal government.
Some 2.4 million students took the exam in May, competing for the more than 100,000 seats in state-run and private medical colleges.
An unusual high number of students scored perfect scores in the exam, prompting allegations of cheating and the possible leaking of exam papers.
The scandal presents Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government with its first real challenge since taking office after elections ended in June.
Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party is forced to share power in a coalition government after losing its outright majority in the parliament.
The Indian National Congress, the country’s main opposition group, has vowed to raise the exam scandal in the first session of the new parliament, which began on June 24.
Exam paper leaks are not uncommon in India. However, the alleged irregularities this time have taken centre stage in the country and raised questions about the entire testing system.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters last week that the government scrapped entrance tests for doctorate programmes after an inquiry revealed the exam paper was available on the “dark net”. BLOOMBERG
Excessive when millions are living in poverty in India.
Drummers perform as staff members of the house of Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani dance on the day of Anant Ambani's wedding in Mumbai, on July 12.
Jul 18, 2024
When Beyonce performed at a pre-wedding party for Ms Isha Ambani in 2018, India was agog. Merely receiving an invitation conferred bragging rights on status-obsessed business leaders and politicians. The cost of the nuptials, with countless ancillary events, was said to be in excess of US$100 million (S$134 million).
That is a staggering sum for almost anyone – but not the Ambani family, which owns a controlling interest in Reliance Industries, the country’s most valuable company, dominating everything from telecommunications to oil refining. Despite some anti-rich finger-wagging, many Indians appear to have viewed the event, which even the maharajas of yore would envy, as evidence that India – and Indian business – could once again glitter.
You might therefore have expected the months-long wedding celebrations of Ms Isha’s brother Anant, which concluded on July 14, to provoke a similarly positive response. It featured even more international stars (Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Rihanna), more bling (outfits embroidered in gold along with enough golf ball-size rubies, diamonds and emeralds) and a higher price tag (the figure US$600 million has been bandied about).
It contributed handsomely to India’s booming matrimony business, which generates perhaps US$130 billion a year in revenues (only food makes up a bigger share of Indians’ retail spending). Behind the innumerable beautiful saris at the Ambani wedding were thousands of designers, tailors and seamstresses; behind the dances and elaborate backdrops were thousands of choreographers, musicians and carpenters. The wedding filled hotels, private jets, a fleet of golf carts and at least one cruise ship.
Yet instead of awe and pride, the reaction this time was considerably more mixed. As the Juggernaut, an online publication, summed it up, it “shows us the power of Asia’s richest family. But it also gave us the ick”.
A decorated Rolls-Royce car carrying guests leaves Antilia, the house of Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, on the day of Anant Ambani’s wedding in Mumbai, on July 12. PHOTO: REUTERS
It was not just the Juggernaut that felt a bit icky. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi did make an appearance at one of the events leading up to the ceremony. But the Gandhi family, which leads the left-of-centre political opposition, pointedly did not. Foreign political leaders who attended were mostly former ones (Mr Tony Blair, Mr Boris Johnson) or seemed an odd fit. Mr John Kerry, America’s former climate envoy, was rubbing shoulders with Mr Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, at an event bankrolled by wealth derived primarily from Reliance’s giant petrochemicals operation that, to complicate matters further, refines oil from Russia.
Indeed, Mr Anant’s extravaganza looks likely to be the last of its kind for a while. That is not just because he was the last unwed child of Mr Mukesh, the Ambani clan’s patriarch, and because no one (with the possible exception of the family of Mr Gautam Adani, India’s second-richest industrialist) can match the Ambanis’ deep pockets. Mr Modi’s government has become increasingly aware of voters’ distaste for rising inequality, which may have cost his Bharatiya Janata Party its absolute majority in a general election earlier in 2024.
Strong gross domestic product (GDP) growth and a soaring stock market have created more wealth for India’s rich, but not that many new jobs or wage gains for its poor. Between Ms Isha’s and Mr Anant’s weddings, India’s GDP per person rose from US$2,000 to US$2,500 (not adjusted for inflation). By comparison, in the same period, the Ambani family fortune swelled from US$47 billion to US$122 billion.
More gallingly to many Indians, it has shot up by US$10 billion in the past month alone. Reliance’s share price rose by 8 per cent after the company’s Jio telecoms business raised prices for its 470 million customers. To the Ambanis, this may have made their US$600 million celebrations look like a bargain. To almost everyone else, it makes them look disconnected from India’s economic and social reality. © 2024 THE ECONOMIST NEWSPAPER LIMITED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
What a US$600 million wedding says about India’s attitude to wealth
The Ambani nuptials enticed everyone, from Justin Bieber and Shah Rukh Khan to John Kerry.
The Economist
Drummers perform as staff members of the house of Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani dance on the day of Anant Ambani's wedding in Mumbai, on July 12.
Jul 18, 2024
When Beyonce performed at a pre-wedding party for Ms Isha Ambani in 2018, India was agog. Merely receiving an invitation conferred bragging rights on status-obsessed business leaders and politicians. The cost of the nuptials, with countless ancillary events, was said to be in excess of US$100 million (S$134 million).
That is a staggering sum for almost anyone – but not the Ambani family, which owns a controlling interest in Reliance Industries, the country’s most valuable company, dominating everything from telecommunications to oil refining. Despite some anti-rich finger-wagging, many Indians appear to have viewed the event, which even the maharajas of yore would envy, as evidence that India – and Indian business – could once again glitter.
You might therefore have expected the months-long wedding celebrations of Ms Isha’s brother Anant, which concluded on July 14, to provoke a similarly positive response. It featured even more international stars (Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Rihanna), more bling (outfits embroidered in gold along with enough golf ball-size rubies, diamonds and emeralds) and a higher price tag (the figure US$600 million has been bandied about).
It contributed handsomely to India’s booming matrimony business, which generates perhaps US$130 billion a year in revenues (only food makes up a bigger share of Indians’ retail spending). Behind the innumerable beautiful saris at the Ambani wedding were thousands of designers, tailors and seamstresses; behind the dances and elaborate backdrops were thousands of choreographers, musicians and carpenters. The wedding filled hotels, private jets, a fleet of golf carts and at least one cruise ship.
Yet instead of awe and pride, the reaction this time was considerably more mixed. As the Juggernaut, an online publication, summed it up, it “shows us the power of Asia’s richest family. But it also gave us the ick”.
A decorated Rolls-Royce car carrying guests leaves Antilia, the house of Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, on the day of Anant Ambani’s wedding in Mumbai, on July 12. PHOTO: REUTERS
It was not just the Juggernaut that felt a bit icky. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi did make an appearance at one of the events leading up to the ceremony. But the Gandhi family, which leads the left-of-centre political opposition, pointedly did not. Foreign political leaders who attended were mostly former ones (Mr Tony Blair, Mr Boris Johnson) or seemed an odd fit. Mr John Kerry, America’s former climate envoy, was rubbing shoulders with Mr Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, at an event bankrolled by wealth derived primarily from Reliance’s giant petrochemicals operation that, to complicate matters further, refines oil from Russia.
Indeed, Mr Anant’s extravaganza looks likely to be the last of its kind for a while. That is not just because he was the last unwed child of Mr Mukesh, the Ambani clan’s patriarch, and because no one (with the possible exception of the family of Mr Gautam Adani, India’s second-richest industrialist) can match the Ambanis’ deep pockets. Mr Modi’s government has become increasingly aware of voters’ distaste for rising inequality, which may have cost his Bharatiya Janata Party its absolute majority in a general election earlier in 2024.
Strong gross domestic product (GDP) growth and a soaring stock market have created more wealth for India’s rich, but not that many new jobs or wage gains for its poor. Between Ms Isha’s and Mr Anant’s weddings, India’s GDP per person rose from US$2,000 to US$2,500 (not adjusted for inflation). By comparison, in the same period, the Ambani family fortune swelled from US$47 billion to US$122 billion.
More gallingly to many Indians, it has shot up by US$10 billion in the past month alone. Reliance’s share price rose by 8 per cent after the company’s Jio telecoms business raised prices for its 470 million customers. To the Ambanis, this may have made their US$600 million celebrations look like a bargain. To almost everyone else, it makes them look disconnected from India’s economic and social reality. © 2024 THE ECONOMIST NEWSPAPER LIMITED. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Violet Oon and children reach out-of-court settlement with business partner, end partnership
Violet Oon (seated) with her son Tay Yiming (left), daughter Tay Su-lyn and business partner Manoj Murjani in 2018. PHOTO: ST FILE
Tan Hsueh Yun
Senior Correspondent
Jul 18, 2024
SINGAPORE – Luxury and lifestyle company Group MMM and its director Manoj Murjani said they have reached an out-of-court settlement to end their business partnership with Peranakan cooking doyenne Violet Oon and her children.
Mr Murjani, 54, had bought a 50 per cent share in Ms Oon’s business, now with three restaurants, in 2014.
In a statement, he said the two parties had “reached an out-of-court settlement to end our partnership of the better part of a decade”. Ms Oon, 75, owns 50 per cent of the business with her children, Ms Tay Su-lyn and Mr Tay Yiming.
He added: “I wish Violet, Ming and Su all the best in their endeavours and trust that they will continue flying the flag for Singapore and Peranakan cuisine. I look forward to perhaps one day enjoying one of Violet’s meals again.”
Ms Oon and her children brought a shareholder oppression suit against Mr Murjani and Group MMM. They asked the court to grant an order for them to buy Mr Murjani’s 50 per cent stake in Violet Oon Inc, or for the company to be wound up.
They also asked for a shareholders’ agreement, signed in February 2019, to be invalidated, alleging it was signed under “duress and undue influence” from Mr Murjani.
The eight-day trial took place in July 2023.
In January 2024, the Oon family won the civil suit, with Singapore’s High Court ordering that the family buy out Mr Murjani’s 50 per cent stake in the company at fair value. The High Court’s view was that he and Group MMM’s conduct in the case made it “intolerable” for Ms Oon and her children to work with them.
Violet Oon Inc runs three restaurants, at National Gallery Singapore, Ion and this one at Jewel Changi Airport. PHOTO: VIOLET OON
On July 3, 2024, the High Court ordered Group MMM and Mr Murjani to pay $299,000 in legal costs to Ms Oon and her children.
When contacted, Ms Oon and her children declined to comment.
You lao sai after eating their food.
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