WHITE PLAINS – A Pound Ridge man has been indicted by a Westchester County grand jury on charges that he kept three young women in the home he shared with his wife and used them as sex slaves.

Joseph Yannai, 66, of Salem Road in Pound Ridge was charged with hiring the women as personal assistants from November 2007 through March 2009. The victims were solicited by Yannai through communications initiated on an au pair website. He posed online as a young woman who worked for him as a personal assistant.

The victims were natives of Hungary, France and Brazil and had each sought employment as au pairs. He listed the terms of employment as either a live-out option involving a $2,000 monthly payment, or a live-in option where all expenses would be paid and the women would receive a $20,000 year-end bonus.

During their employment, Yannai limited personal phone calls and emails and he did not pay them for the work they performed.

During their tenure at his house, he demanded that they perform sexual services. Each feared physical harm to themselves while they lived with him.

On March 11, 2009, one of the victims was assisted in escaping and filing a report with the Pound Ridge Police and on May 18, 2009, Yannai was arrested.

He has been charged in the indictment with one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree, a felony; three counts of sexual abuse in the first degree, felonies; three counts of labor trafficking in the second degree, felonies; 12 counts of forcible touching, misdemeanors; and one count of tampering with a witness, a misdemeanor.

If convicted, Yannai faces up to 15 years in state prison.