This guy acted like he was a guru but instead he just wanted to play the part of a guru!
And he decided to sue his lottery winner ex because she had given away “HIS” stuff?!
Let’s get right to people we thought we could have trusted!
3 - Not So Hot Yoga When Bikram Choudhury started his yoga practice
in the 70s, he started with some extraordinary claims.
He said that he had coached Elvis Presely and somehow saved Richard Nixon from a leg
amputation through his practice.
Before long, Bikram had picked up an elite following in Los Angeles.
Everyone wanted to try out his practice, and stars like Shirley MacLaine and Quincy Jones
were early adopters.
Because of this elite following, his business grew in leaps and bounds and he was soon training
teachers for $10,000 a pop.
All of these led Bikram to building up a fortune.
With this wealth came fame, and even more wealth.
After a while, Bikram became a global superstar.
His name was on Yoga centers all around the world, and he was called a grandmaster of
Yoga by many.
He was truly living the American dream.
But Bikram wasn’t what he seemed.
He wasn’t this slightly eccentric and enlightened guru who led people to the path of truth.
Instead he was something else.
He was something horrifying, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that the truth about
Bikram got out.
In 2013, the first concrete claims that would break Bikram’s false image came from one
of his female ex-students.
After that claim came several others making the same accusations.
It appeared that Bikram had made extremely inappropriate moves and actions towards his
students while he taught them.
“Guru” However, instead of apologizing for the harm
he caused and taking responsibility, Bikram had another thing in mind.
He laughed at the accusations and said that it was ridiculous for him to be accused of
inappropriate behavior with female students.
He said that women loved and liked him, and there was absolutely no need for him to behave
inappropriately with them.
What he insinuated by this was that he could have his way with any woman he wanted because
they all loved him.
But the numerous women who have leveled accusations against Bikram disagree vehemently with his
defense.
Sarah Baughn, one of the women accusing Bikram, said that he told her that her career as a
Yoga instructor could never advance if she didn't allow him to have his way with her.
That was just one out of numerous accusations of impropriety leveled against Bikram in his
50 year career as a Yoga instructor.
Incredibly, Baughn’s accusations are even mild compared to the more severe accusations
of assault from other women like Jill Lawler.
Jill claimed that Bikram had non consensual relations with her when she was just eighteen
years old.
Of course, Bikram denies all of this.
When asked about these accusations on HBO’s “Real Sports” program, he had extremely
degrading things to say about Jill and the other women accusing him.
He first of all argued that all of them were liars and were out to dent his reputation
and destroy his business.
He then said that if he needed women to have intimate relations with, he could easily make
them line up for his attention.
He even said that some women go into deep depression just because they want to be intimate
with him.
But those weren’t the only outrageous claims he made.
He said that he could make millions everyday because many women wanted to pay him to have
consensual relations with them.
To round it all up, he called Sarah Baughn, his primary accuser, a psychopath.
Outside his issues with harassment accusations, Bikram also had interesting things to say
about Yoga in general.
He said that he works for twenty four hours everyday and doesn’t sleep or eat.
And this wasn’t an exaggeration or hyperbole on his part.
He reaffirmed his statement when he was asked again, and said that his practice of Yoga
means he doesn’t need to sleep or eat.
When he was asked how that affects his health, he said it does not.
He even said that he knew a billion times more than all doctors combined and that every
single doctor in the world came to learn medicine from him.
Escaped
In a way, Bikram had the confidence to speak like this because he knew that he could get
away with a lot of what he had done.
Many of the accusations he faced were from decades ago, and as a result many of his accusers
had nothing but their words as evidence.
But one of the women accusing him, a lady named Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, sued him for gender
discrimination, wrongful termination and harassment while she worked for him between 2011 and
2013.
Jafa-Bodden won the civil case and was awarded 6.5 million dollars.
But Bikram was determined not to pay this money and fled the United States after the
judgment.
This meant that he evaded service of official papers and is now a fugitive in the US.
However, Bikram’s fugitive status in America hasn’t stopped him from still training teachers
and attending seminars outside America.
According to his lawyers, Bikram’s permanently traveling the world and continues to give
his lectures wherever he can.
Broke
It may sound like our yoga guru got away scot free, but he did no such thing.
By 2017, Bikram had been wrecked by debts from numerous legal judgments and he was forced
to file for bankruptcy protection.
By the time he left the country, he left behind his luxury collection of cars and they’re
worth a lot of money.
These cars include a dozen Rolls-Royces, five Bentleys, a 1971 Pontiac Lemans, a 1973 Ford
Mustang Mach 1, and a Ford GT40.
These cars were all seized by the state to settle his creditors.
Amazingly, Bikram still hid some of his cars to stop them from getting seized.
Unfortunately for him, the existence of these hidden vehicles has been verified and they’ll
be found.
While Bikram may still be a traveling yoga superstar, he’s a significantly poorer one.
Despite losing his luxury cars and most of his belongings in the states, he still hasn’t
settled all his creditors and still owes lots of debt.
2 - Hot Sauce Marie Holmes was a single mother working five
jobs to support her four children when it was announced that she had won the $188 million
Powerball jackpot in 2015.
The win instantly took her from lower class single mum to one of the richest people in
her city.
She became extraordinarily wealthy overnight, and suddenly had millions of dollars to spend.
One incredible thing about her win was that the lottery numbers she played had been picked
by her mother.
The numbers themselves were inspired by a dream her mother had about a deceased son.
The numbers were supposed to reflect the son’s age and how old he would be if he hadn’t
kicked the bucket.
Before winning the lottery, Marie was a single mother of four children living in a trailer
in the backwaters of town.
She also worked five jobs which includes stints at Walmart, Food Lion, KFC, McDonald’s and
Subway.
She’d also had a pretty rough childhood and saw her father go to prison.
Before she won the lottery, her father was in jail serving a 5 year sentence.
Offending Boyfriend Two years before Marie won the lottery, she
began dating a man named Lamar McDow.
She’d met McDow when she worked as a server and had only three children.
In the two years before winning the lottery, Marie had a kid with McDow and they began
a serious relationship.
However, things were about to change for both of them in different ways.
Two months before Marie won the lottery, McDow was arrested for trafficking charges and had
bail set at three million dollars.
Of course, at the time, Marie had no choice but to leave him in jail because she couldn’t
post his bail.
But all of that changed when she won the lottery and suddenly had a lump sum of eighty eight
million dollars sitting pretty in her bank account.
After winning, Marie immediately posted bail for her fiancee and got him free.
But that was just the beginning of her bail posting adventures.
Before McDow was released, he was given strict bail conditions and was given a curfew.
Barely three months later, law enforcement realized that he’d broken his curfew, and
they visited his home to execute a search warrant.
On searching his home, they discovered a gun, which made them rearrest him.
This time he had a bail of six million dollars, and Marie made sure she was stuck with the
bill again.
Five months later, McDow was arrested for breaking conditions for his bail again.
This time, he was arrested for conspiring to organize an illegal street race.
Marie, again, put up the guarantee for the bail which was about 12 million dollars.
That meant that she would have to pay around 21 million dollars if McDow, for any reason,
didn’t appear for his trial.
Gifts
Asides from bailing him out three separate times with millions of dollars, Marie also
bought expensive gifts for McDow.
These gifts include a 1966 Blk Chevy Chevelle, a 2015 vChevy Stingray, a 15 thousand dollar
rolex watch, an automotive shop, and trucks and tools to operate the shop with.
Marie did all of this because she was committed to their relationship, and expected McDow
to build a family with her.
McDow finally had his trial in 2016 and was sentenced to ten years in prison, and is due
to be released in 2023.
At the time of his sentencing, Marie was already his fiancee and they planned to get married
once he got out of jail.
But that wasn’t to be.
A few years after going to prison, McDow learnt from a friend that Marie had started dating
someone new and had sold everything she had bought for him.
Sued
McDow decided to sue Marie for selling the items and cars she had bought for him after
learning about her relationship with another person.
He told the court that it was true he owned nothing before meeting her, but he also said
that he expected her to not sell his items.
While filing his case, he admitted that none of the items were in his name and actually
belonged to Marie legally.
However, he claimed that she didn’t act in his best interests as she had his power
of attorney, and therefore he deserved financial compensation.
Maybe when he gets out in 2023, he’ll take that up with her personally!
1 - Thumb Scamming Guy Griffith is a Hollywood producer who was
accused of defrauding 25 investors of around 4.5 million dollars through a worthless business.
If you look up Guy Griffith, what you’d find is an IMDB bio profile that’s unnecessarily
long claiming that Griffith had a tough upbringing and is basically an exceptional business man
who’s breaking new ground in Hollywood.
His bio also says that he bought a condo at 16 years old, and started his own mortgage
brokerage at 22.
While his IMDB profile may be fantastic, his resume when it comes to making movies isn’t
really that extraordinary.
Films
He specializes in movies made in VR formats and they include box office bombs like the
Humanity Bureau starring Nicholas cage and fringe movies like The Recall starring Wesley
Snipes.
His IMDB profile may bill him as the next best thing in Hollywood, but the evidence
suggests otherwise.
Interestingly, Griffith's most popular work isn’t the movie with Nicholas Cage or Wesley
Snipes.
It’s actually a mockumentary on Thumb Wrestling called WTF, which stands for World Thumbwrestling
Federation.
Yes, that title was a little bit on the nose, but the film was actually moderately successful.
Okay, we admit – the name was actually kind of good.
But that’s really where it ends for Griffith and Bridgegate, the film production company
that he was president of.
The company has never made any blockbusters, and maybe the lack of success with making
movies was what led Griffith to his next venture.
SMRB LLC
Guy Griffith’s next business was a joint venture with a businessman named Robert Russel.
Russel had a business called SMRB LLC that grew medicinal herbs – if you know what
we mean.
Let us just call these herbs Maryjane for short.
Griffith wanted in on this business, so he struck a deal with Russel to buy a 49% stake
in the business for about $1.5 million.
However, Griffith didn’t actually have the funds to put up for the purchase, so he went
about raising money for the operation by selling stakes in the company.
Remember, he hadn’t yet purchased the stakes – and yet was already selling shares from
it.
If that sounds legally dodgy, you’re right.
But it gets even worse.
SMRB LLC was domiciled in Washington state, and according to Washington state law, owners
of medical herb growing companies must be residents and must be investigated and approved
by the state’s regulatory board.
Griffith and Russel didn’t abide by those rules, so the shares that Griffith actually
bought were worth nothing.
Despite that, Griffith managed to get 25 investors who were willing to own shares in the company.
The 25 investors put up around $5 million, which should have been more than enough for
the operation, but Griffith overplayed his hand and got more capital than he even wanted.
Since there was a real business behind the scheme, Griffith was able to take potential
investors on tours of the facilities and actually showed them what their money would be used
for.
In agreements with the investors, he promised them both a cut of ensuing profits from the
sale of the herbs and an ownership interest in the company itself.
This way, he was able to convert a lot of prospective investors to actual investors.
Lifestyle
Instead of investing the money in the business, he diverted a huge chunk of it for his personal
needs.
Griffith was able to keep up the fraud for a while by paying dividends from capital gotten
from other investors.
This, of course, is the textbook definition of a Ponzi scheme.
Asides from that, the investors didn’t receive certificates or documentation of their shares
and basically got nothing to prove that they in fact owned shares in the company.
Meanwhile, the company itself was stuck in a rut and wasn’t doing well.
So where did the chunk of the capital paid by investors actually go?
According to a complaint submitted to the SEC, they went to Griffith’s movie production
company.
At least $1.7 million went into his personal bank account and he bought a $250,000 yacht
from the funds too.
He also bought a slew of vehicles including a 2008 Bentley Continental, a 2012 Mercedes
Benz, a 2013 Ford Mustang and a 2015 Porsche Panamera.
Interestingly, almost none of the misappropriated funds can be traced to Russel.
Russel’s lawyer argues that his client only knew about the original $1.5 million raised
by Griffith to purchase a stake in the company, and that he had no idea about the remaining
$3.5 million seperately raised by Griffith.
Court
But the SEC didn’t accept that argument and sued both Griffith and Russel to court
in a civil case.
In court, it was decided that Griffith would pay back roughly around $5.3 million while
Russel would pay back around $600,000.
The amazing thing about this judgment was that it didn’t force Griffith or Russel
to admit to any wrongdoing, and since it wasn’t a criminal case they’ll probably not go
to jail either.
Click to watch one of these next videos!
Let us know in the comment section who was in the right in this situation?
Lamar who should have been able to keep his gifts from Marie?
Or Marie, since she never put the cars and properties in his name?