CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. — It looks like a castle from the outside, but federal authorities say life inside was not a happy fairy tale for an illegal immigrant held in a "forced labor situation" to do housework and child care by the lady of the palace known as Llenroc.

Annie George, 39, of Rexford, is accused of inducing a woman from India to reside in the country and confining her at the mansion for nearly three years, a federal criminal complaint alleges.

The woman — identified only as "V.M." — worked from dawn to late in the evening seven days a week, cooking and cleaning and caring for George's six children, the complaint said. She is entitled to more than $200,000, but was paid far less and was forced to live in a closet, authorities said.

George and her late husband, real estate developer Mathai Kolath George, hired V.M. in 2005, with her work continuing at Llenroc from 2008 to 2011, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in the complaint filed Monday in United States District Court.

V.M. labored at the 30,000 square-foot-home built during boom times by insurance magnate Al Lawrence, who ended up in prison after being convicted of thefts related to his Schenectady-based business.

It's name, LLenroc, is Cornell spelled backwards. It was to recall a treasured time at Cornell University, and resembled a building on the campus where Lawrence met his future wife. The house once valued at $19 million, like Lawrence, fell on hard times and sold for a tiny fraction of its original cost.

When the George family hired V.M., they agreed to pay her about $1,000 a week, plus food and lodging, the affidavit said. Annie George also uses the names Annie Kolath and Sajimole George, records said.

On April 27, 2011, federal authorities received a tip through a human trafficking hot line about V.M.'s work conditions. Homeland security agents from Albany went to Llenroc to investigate, and determined V.W. was working without a proper visa, the complaint said. The investigators removed V.M. from the home on May 3. She spoke little English, and said she had come from Kerala, India.

The affidavit charges that Annie George did not fill out tax forms for the employee, shorted her tens of thousands of dollars in pay and withheld wages. V.M. allegedly told investigators that she worked from 5:45 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week without personal time or health care visits. She was forced to sleep in a walk-in closet of a bedroom so she could watch after three daughters in the family during nights, authorities said.

The alleged victim arrived in New York City in 1998 under a specific work visa. She left for Albany in 2005, and violated the conditions of her visa when she started caring for the George's children and the family's residences in Menands and Catskill, according to court papers.

The George family moved into the 34-room, five-bedroom, 10-bathroom Llenroc in August 2008. The grandiose dwelling is set above the Mohawk River and has a helicopter pad, 15 fireplaces, an indoor swimming pool and ceilings gilded in 24-karat gold. But it has a seemingly cursed history.

Its original owner, Lawrence, headed the now-defunct Lawrence Group Inc., a Schenectady-based stable of insurers and underwriters that filed for bankruptcy protection in 1997 after massive losses from a Florida hurricane. Three years later, Lawrence was found guilty by a federal jury of 20 counts of white-collar crime, including embezzlement, fraud and tax evasion. He died of cancer just two months into his prison sentence.

A former actor in India, Mathai Kolath George and the couple's eldest son, George Kolath Jr., were killed in 2009, when their private plane plunged into the Mohawk River. Mathai Kolath George had planned to purchase Llenroc at the time of his death; his family moved into the mansion while he was trying to sell the property as part of his real estate development business. In November 2009, an entity named Power Angels LLC paid $1.87 million for the Riverview Road property, far less than a 2007 asking price of $12.9 million and the $30 million that Mathai Kolath George had once sought, according to reports.

Power Angels have not paid any taxes on the property since purchasing it and owe $74,000 in back taxes, a town official said Thursday.

At Llenroc, V.M. had little access to the world outside its walls, and no money or transportation, authorities said. Bank documents and other evidence showed V.M. received only $29,000 from the Georges for 5 ½ years of work between October 2005 and May 2011, or $37,000 to $38,000 less than what the George family promised her, court papers say. Nearly all the $29,000 the Georges did pay V.M. was sent in money transfers to the woman's son in India, the documents say. The U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division determined that V.M. was entitled to $206,000 for her years of work for the family.

The Georges told V.W. she couldn't visit her family in India because she lacked immigration paperwork, the affidavit says. The family took her to see an immigration attorney, for which they withheld $4,000 of her wages, but V.M. never received a passport, the affidavit said.

Investigators cite three recorded phone conversations between V.M.'s son and Annie George as evidence. In those, Annie George acknowledges that V.M. did not have a passport or visa, and tries to coach him to lie to authorities, court records allege.

"If she says anything about working, it would become a big crime," the document quotes Annie George as telling V.M.'s son. "They'll start adding up all the taxes and everything for all this time."

dyusko@timesunion.com • 518-454-5353 • @DAYusko