Comment The leaders of a popular charity-funded yoga studio chain could be behind bars for tax fraud, according to the Justice Department. Yoga to the People leaders Gregory Gumucio, 61; Michael Anderson, 51; and Haven Soliman, 33, were arrested Wednesday for failing to file and pay personal or business tax returns for at least seven years, the US Southern District of New York alleges. They are each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and five counts of tax evasion. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that the trio had made more than $20 million from their now-defunct yoga business, flaunting a lavish lifestyle and devising ways to avoid paying Uncle Sam. “Defendants carried out their scheme in a variety of ways, including paying employees in cash and off the books, refusing to provide tax documents to employees, failing to maintain books and records, paying personal expenses from business accounts, and using nominees to disguise their connection to various entities,” Williams said. The arrest and charges add stains to the legacy of the foreclosed franchise, which began offering yoga classes on Manhattan’s Lower East Side around 2006 to anyone, regardless of how much money they could afford to pay for the classes. Gumucio, founder of Yoga to the People and a former disciple of embattled yogi Bikram Choudhury, has faced accusations of sexual misconduct, improper management practices along with alleged racial discrimination and other wrongdoing. by an Instagram account known as YttP Shadow Work in July 2020. That same year, Vice News reported that he has a decades-long history of preying on vulnerable women, rape accusations and felony convictions. In an email obtained by Vice News, Gumucio told the yoga students that the messages about him were malicious, said the harm was never intentional, and made it clear that the company does not tolerate any form of abuse. Yoga to the People closed its doors in 2020, blaming the coronavirus pandemic, but accusations against its leaders have shed new light on fraudulent business practices. Thomas Fattorusso, a specialist in criminal investigations for the Internal Revenue Service, said in a statement that the seemingly noble practice of offering yoga to everyone was nothing more than a “decade-old cash cow that relied on a sophisticated network of tens of millions of dollars in undeclared income and free labor to finance the lavish lifestyles of the leaders.” The yoga company has grown from one studio in its early days to approximately 20 yoga studios or affiliated locations throughout New York and other areas including California, Colorado, Arizona, Florida and Washington state. Although it did not require payment from its class participants, the company made a significant amount of money from a yoga teacher training program, taking in more than $20 million without ever filing a corporate tax return, according to the complaint. Between 2015 and 2020, Gumucio had more than $1.6 million in income directly from Yoga to the People and owed the IRS about $431,000, prosecutors say. Anderson, the company’s owner and chief operating officer, earned $2.1 million in undeclared income, owing the IRS more than $603,000, according to the Justice Department. Soliman, head of communications and director of the teacher education program, made more than $961,000 in undeclared income, according to the agency. According to federal prosecutors, the trio enjoyed their unexplained wealth by taking frequent extravagant trips abroad, spending large sums on fine dining and buying NFL season tickets. Gumucio allegedly abused his power by typically targeting and grooming young women and others to become prospective studio “owners,” the complaint states. He would then woo them with the title of studio owner while continuing to make business decisions, cutting into their income while the candidates faced financial risk. He also allegedly manipulated his employees into providing free services, such as teaching classes or cleaning yoga studios, to maximize his undeclared income. Over the years, Yoga to the People paid its teachers in cash, prohibited yoga instructors from counting money from class participants only to transfer cash to Gumicio’s apartment, and maintained no corporate headquarters to keep the books and their records, using business accounts to pay for personal expenses, according to investigators. All three face up to 10 years in prison on their charges. Their legal representation could not be immediately located.
