Feds: Woman Cheated Servant At Llenroc Mansion

March 01--REXFORD -- The wife of the man who died in a plane crash in the Mohawk River faces federal charges for allegedly not paying an illegal immigrant she hired to do housework at Llenroc mansion, the elaborate home she owned that was built by the late insurance magnate Al Lawrence.

Annie George, 39, is accused of confining a woman from India in a "forced labor situation" at the mansion, a criminal complaint alleges.

George encouraged and induced an illegal immigrant to reside in the country, a violation of federal law, when she employed a woman identified only as "V.M." as a domestic servant for about three years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security alleges in the complaint filed Monday in United States District Court.

George and her late husband, real estate developer Mathai Kolath George, hired V.M. for $1,000 a week to clean the 30,000-square-foot home and care for their six children, according to the affidavit.

Mathai Kolath George and the couple's eldest son, George Kolath Jr., died in 2009, when their private plane plunged into the Mohawk River.

In May 2011, federal authorities received a tip about V.M.'s work conditions, and went to Llenroc to investigate, according to the complaint. They took V.M. from the home. It says she came from Kerala, India, and speaks little English.

The affidavit alleges George did not fill out tax forms for the employee, shorted her on tens of thousands of dollars in compensation 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 on the floor of a walk-in closet of a bedroom shared by three daughters in the family, authorities said.

The Llenroc home contains 34 rooms, five bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.

Lawrence headed Lawrence Group Inc., a Schenectady-based stable of insurers and underwriters that filed for bankruptcy protection in 1997.

Three years later, Albert Lawrence was found guilty by a federal jury of 20 counts of white-collar crime, including embezzlement, fraud and tax evasion, for moving money among his companies in an attempt to save them from ruin.

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