Authorities in New York announced that three executives of a multimillion dollar international yoga network that advertised itself as "Yoga to the People" before shutting down due to reports that it functioned like a cult were detained on Wednesday in Washington State for failing to pay federal taxes while they lived luxuriously.
According to a complaint that was unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, the donation-based group made over $20 million over a ten-year period while promising that its lessons would be free of ego and glorified instructors since "yoga is for everyone."
According to the complaint, the group was founded in Manhattan's East Village in 2006 before growing to be "extremely popular" and opening up studios in other cities, including San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland in California, Tempe, Arizona, Orlando, Florida, cities in Colorado, Washington State, Spain, and Israel.
Gregory Gumucio, 61, Haven Soliman, 33, and Michael Anderson, 51, all of Cathlamet, Washington, were detained on suspicion of tax evasion and conspiring to cheat the Internal Revenue Service. Who will represent them in court in Washington State wasn't immediately clear. The complaint said Soliman had described herself as Gumucio’s husband in a draught of a 2012 email, but it added that no marriage certificate has been located, though they “are long-term romantic partners.”
According to the authorities, Gumucio founded the company, was its major owner, and acted as its functional chief executive officer. Anderson was the company's chief financial officer, and Soliman oversaw its teacher training programme and served as its chief communications officer.
They alleged that between 2013 and 2020, when none of the three submitted individual tax returns, all three claimed to have six-figure annual earnings in loan or rental applications.
They said that the trio led luxurious lives, which included frequent international travel, NFL season tickets, boarding horses, as well as pricey food and apparel.
According to the complaint, the defendants failed to establish a corporate headquarters and failed to maintain corporate books and records. They also allegedly accepted cash payments from yoga students, sometimes hidden in tissue boxes passed around during classes, and paid yoga teachers in cash and "off the books."
A government statement claims that Gumucio "targeted and groomed typically young women and others to become nominee 'owners' of studios, luring them with the title of studio owner when, in reality, he generally controlled business decisions, took a cut of their earnings, and the nominees generally took on meaningful financial risk."
The July 2020 yoga network was shut down just before VICE News released a lengthy investigative report claiming that interviews with more than 30 people who knew or worked with Gumucio since the mid-1990s "depict him as a predator with a penchant for controlling and sexually manipulating bright and frequently vulnerable young women."
Less than two weeks later, New York magazine released its own article in which it claimed that former workers had compared the yoga studio to a cult and said that "behind the company's bright, welcoming exterior was a dark and dysfunctional workplace founded on secrecy and manipulation."
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated in a statement that the investigation into the yoga network was ongoing and he invited anybody who believed they were a victim "of any crimes" connected to the group or if they knew anything about the case's defendants to get in touch.
According to the allegations, the defendants had a successful statewide yoga business that made over $20 million and gave them each a sizeable profit, enabling them to lead extravagant lives. However, for at least seven years in a row, the defendants refused to file tax returns or pay income taxes, the prosecutor said.
The chief of the IRS office in New York, Thomas Fattorusso, also made a suggestion that the probe might turn up more than just tax charges.
The first step in holding these defendants responsible for their alleged crimes, he claimed, is to hold them accountable. "Today's arrests and accusations are the first shot against this long-running scam."