The owners of Yoga to the People were arrested by the FBI for avoiding taxes on at least $20million in cash profits which they used to find their lavish lifestyles.
Gregory Gumucio, 61, Haven Soliman, 33, and Michael Anderson, 51 – the three co-founders of the nationally popular yoga chain – were taken into custody in Washington state as investigators said they ran the entire business as a scam to funnel unreported cash directly into their pockets.
Authorities said the studio owners carried out a carefully orchestrated scheme to avoid reporting its income to the IRS from 2013 through its pandemic-driven closing in 2020.
They’re said to have banned yoga instructors from counting donations visitors can make, then forcing the same instructors to deliver the cash to a New York address in tissue boxes.
‘The defendants perpetrated their scheme in various ways,’ said Damian Williams, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, ‘including paying employees in cash and off the books, refusing to provide employees with tax documentation, not maintaining books and records, paying personal expenses from business accounts and using nominees to disguise their connection to various entities.’
‘At least two of the defendants even submitted fabricated tax returns to third parties when seeking a loan or an apartment, despite not filing any tax returns with the IRS.’
Gregory Gumucio, 61, one of the founders of Yoga to the People was arrested by the FBI for…
