Atlanta, GA: A 41-year-old Indian-American millionaire socialite, Annie George, of upstate New York, was sentenced Tuesday to five years’ probation, including eight months of home confinement with a monitoring device, for keeping an Indian woman in the country illegally, reports Huffington Post.
Annie George was convicted in March of harboring Valsamma Mathai illegally at her 20,000 sq. ft. mansion near Albany. She was acquitted of keeping the woman for financial gain, though prosecutors alleged she owed Mathai $317,000 for 5 1/2 years of work while Mathai said she was paid only $26,000 that was mostly sent to her family in India.
U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe gave no fine but ordered George to forfeit her sprawling, 34-room mansion as a financial penalty. The mansion has a helicopter pad, a massive solarium, and glass elevator. He imposed a harsher sentence on the 41-year-old woman than either defense or prosecutors requested because she lied in her trial testimony, said Huffington Post.
Valsamma Mathai, 49, testified that she was held in the Llenroc Mansion for six and a half years as she worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, and slept in a walk-in closet.