Founder of Yoga Empire 'Refused to Pay His Taxes'

An international yoga business founder whose chain of yoga studios promoted itself as "Yoga to the People" was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to a tax charge. Gregory Gumucio, 64, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by Judge John P. Cronan, who also ordered him to pay $2.7 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, the AP reports. In October, he pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS, admitting that he had not paid over $2.5 million in taxes from 2012 to 2020.

"Gregory Gumucio built a profitable yoga empire and lived well off its success—but he refused to pay his taxes," US Attorney Jay Clayton said in a statement. Gumucio's business, which generated over $20 million in revenue, had operated in about 20 locations in the United States, including in New York City; San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, California; Tempe, Arizona; Orlando, Florida; and cities in Colorado and Washington. It also operated studios in Spain and Israel and was seeking to expand to other countries when it closed four years ago.

When Gumucio was arrested two years ago, a prosecutor said he was living in Cathlamet, Washington, and had been arrested 15 times. Prosecutors also said he had in the past used at least six aliases, three Social Security numbers, and claimed three places of birth. When the business started out in New York City in 2006, it had a pay-what-you-can model and a roster of instructors that included Hilaria Baldwin, the New York Times reported after his guilty plea last year. But in 2020, shortly before it closed, former students and instructors said Gumucio had dodged paying taxes, manipulated students and instructors into sexual relationships, and used racial slurs.