PICTURED: The wealthy mansion owner who forced an illegal immigrant to work for 87 cents an hour and sleep in a closet

The servant was forced to work 17-hour days, seven days a week

The mansion has a helicopter pad, indoor swimming pool, 15 fireplaces, marble flooring, 24-karat gold gilded ceilings and a glass elevator

Arrested: Annie George has been accused of keeping an illegal immigrant as a slave and making her work with no holiday or sick pay

This is the wealthy New Yorker that lives in a 34-room mansion - worth at least $30 million - who has been arrested for forcing an illegal immigrant to work 17-hour days, seven days a week, and sleep on the floor in a walk-in closet.

Annie George, whose property tycoon husband, Mathai, died in a plane crash in 2009, kept a domestic servant in a ‘forced labour situation’ in their 30,000 sq ft mansion in Albany for nearly six years, according to court documents.

The worker from the state of Kerala in India, who has been identified as ‘V.M.’, was paid about 85 cents an hour after initially being promised $1,000 a month. It is estimated she received around $29,000 during the entire time that she worked at the 12-acre estate, while she should have been paid at least $206,000.

Acting on a tip received by the National Human Trafficking Resource Centre, federal immigration agents last year removed the servant from the George estate, which has a helicopter pad, an indoor swimming pool, 15 fireplaces, marble flooring, a four-storey solarium, 24-karat gold gilded ceilings, a glass elevator, and other luxurious features.

Under questioning, the servant, who entered the U.S. on a non-immigrant visa in 1998 to work for the family of a United Nations employee , told federal agents that she received no holiday or sick pay while employed by the Georges, nor was she afforded any dental or medical treatment.



She also had to sleep on the floor in a closet in a bedroom shared by the family’s three daughters, the complaint alleges, because 'Annie George required that V.M. be near the children at night.'

Luxury: The 34-room, 30,000 sq ft mansion that is owned by Annie George where a servant was made to work 17-hour days, seven days a week

Family: Annie George, far right, pictured at the funeral of her husband and son, who both died in a plane crash in 2009, allegedly forced the servant to sleep on the floor in a walk-in closet in a room shared by her children, pictured, so she could be close to them at night

Investigators said that after V.M. was removed last year from the mansion, George spoke three times with the woman’s son in India. During one telephone call, George suggested that the 'son tell his mother to tell authorities that she was a relative of George’s family and was only staying at George’s house as a guest.'

During the conversation, which the son recorded, George said: 'If she says anything about working, it would become a big crime. They’ll start adding up all the taxes and everything, for all the time.'

George appeared yesterday afternoon before a federal magistrate Charged with encouraging and inducing an illegal alien to reside in the U.S. She was released without bond.