Illegal Immigrant Enslaved By Rich NY Family For 6 Years

"A wealthy New York woman is facing criminal charges after being accused of keeping an illegal immigrant as an indentured servant and forcing her to live in a closet for nearly six years."
If you're like me you read that last sentence and thought to yourself WTF, yo!! Immediately historically influenced visions of cotton fields, beatings, human auctions & overall oppression ran across my mind. But on further observation (i jump to conclusions, drop of a hat, seriously) the "enslaved" part was more of an indentured servitude scenario than ROOTS. Though that's not excusing the Georges' moral compass. It seems that "documents posted on the Smoking Gun allege that Annie George, 39, and her now-deceased husband, Mathai Kolath George, hired an illegal immigrant from the Indian state of Kerala." The immigrant in question, known only as “V.M.,” was told she'd be paid about $1,000 a month to live in the family’s 34-room, 30,000-square-foot home, called Llenroc mansion or Baller Manor: North to the uninformed (seen above). The house is fully loaded including a helicopter pad, 15 fireplaces, marble flooring, 24-karat gold gilded ceilings and a glass elevator. V.M. on the other hand was given the "closet" suite. The Georges' had V.M. stay in what could be described as the equivalent to a closet. In turn she was tasked with taking care of the Georges’ four young children, along with performing household duties in the mansion located about 20 miles north of Albany.

So New York’s minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Even if V.M. was allowed to leave the home at the end of a regular 40-hour workweek, she would have been entitled to a minimum, pretax income of $290 per week, or $1,160 per month. In reality, V.M. received only about $29,000 over the five and a half years she was forced to work for the George family.

The Smoking Gun reported that immigration agents received a tip from the National Human Trafficking Resource Center last year and removed V.M. from the George’s place. The U.S. Department of Labor conducted its own investigation and said V.M. is entitled to $206,000 in back wages. She was also allegedly denied health benefits, sick days or any personal time off from her labors. Annie George appeared in court on Wednesday before a federal magistrate, facing charges of encouraging and inducing an illegal alien to reside in the U.S. So essentially she's getting bagged for aiding & abetting an illegal immigrant. Gotta love the system.
Source: Yahoo News
Image: Georgetown Week