They were running a nonprofit yoga studio yet somehow they were raking in millions in
cash?!
And this guy was looking for investor money to build the best homes…..or was he?!
Were these scams or businesses?!
Let’s get right to it!
3 - Money to the Scammers
Millions Saved
Gregory Gumucio arrived in New York City in 2006 with the mission that yoga should be
accessible to everyone.
He started Yoga to the People, a national brand of yoga studios run solely on donations.
In 2022, it was revealed that its founders used Yoga to the People as a front to hoard
millions of dollars that went unreported to the Internal Revenue Service for at least
seven years.
Yoga to the People
Yoga to the People started as a small studio in the East Village in Manhattan but quickly
became extremely popular, with studios opening across the United States.
It was a no-frills studio where yoga students fished around in their wallets for a donation
and clamored for their chance to secure a mat.
Its huge success attracted international celebrities and royalty.
One of its early instructors was a Swedish reality star, Sofia Kristina Hellqvist, who
dated Gumucio and later married into the Swedish royal family, becoming Princess Sofia.
Hilaria Baldwin, who later married actor Alec Baldwin, also taught at Yoga to the People
before opening her own yoga studio in 2010.
Co-Owners
Gumucio was the founder and core of Yoga to the People, who was known for his extreme
emotional intelligence.
Many people said he had a gift for seeing through people, or at least making them think
he could.
But this also created a culture of obedience, loyalty, and manipulation at the expense of
his customers, many of them young women.
Haven Soliman, Gumucio’s wife, was another owner of Yoga to the People who also served
as its Chief Communications Officer, the Director of Education for the Teacher Training Program,
and was active in the brand’s campaign to expand internationally.
Michael Anderson was the third founder and Chief Financial Officer who was involved in
negotiating leases for Yoga to the People studios and entities, obtaining employee information,
opening bank accounts, and helping Gumucio expand the company.
Gregory Gumucio
Beyond his “talent” for understanding people and their needs, Gumucio had quite
the controversial background.
Gumucio was trained by the infamous Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram yoga.
Gumucio met Bikram in 1996 in Los Angeles and worked under his supervision as a yoga
instructor until 2002.
Bikram later sued Gumucio for copyright infringement for Yoga to the People, which was settled
out of court in 2011.
Investigators also found that Gumucio was charged with trying to escape from police
custody in 1986 and was sentenced to six years in prison.
That same year, he pleaded guilty to stealing a car.
He was accused of assault in Washington State in 2004 and had a lengthy criminal record
in Colorado including a felony conviction of forgery, with two states having records
of him using an alias.
By the time he arrived in New York City and started Yoga to the People, Gumucio already
had an unsavory history with violating the law and manipulating people.
Gumucio started dating Larissa Anderson in 2000.
The relationship seemed to be going strong on the outside, with Gumucio telling Anderson
she was beautiful and perfect…except for her varicose veins.
He continued to point out her insecurities and eventually revealed that he had been lying
about his age for their entire relationship.
After his driver’s license fell out of his pocket while they were doing laundry, Anderson
found that the Gumucio was several years older than he claimed to be.
She began working for him and helping to pay his bills.
He justified it by saying he was doing a public service by making yoga accessible to all.
She bought him a car and ran up a huge credit card debt by trying to build a life with him.
Anderson grew suspicious when she noticed Gumucio was spending a lot of time with other
women.
At one point, he tried to manipulate Anderson into drug use and an unwanted relationship.
Eventually, one of Gumucio’s other women became pregnant.
Anderson and Gumucio broke up.
People who knew him said Gumucio had a history of manipulating his female students and teachers,
especially preying on those going through a vulnerable period in their lives.
He was known to flirt with the young, attractive women who worked for him at company boozy
events.
Gumucio offered himself as a support system to his female instructors and students, offering
his services to their families and lending an ear to their struggles.
But he almost always crossed a line.
Stacking Parties
Donations were deposited into tissue boxes passed among the students, like a church collection
plate.
Instructors weren’t allowed to count the money, and instead had to bring the boxes
directly to Gumucio’s house, where he counted the cash at what he called “stacking parties.”
Then, they stashed the money in guitar cases.
At one stacking party, at least $30,000 cash was stuffed in a guitar case.
Its instructors were an important source of revenue too.
Yoga to the People offered yoga teacher training programs that cost $3,000 per person.
Then, Gumucio pressured them into teaching classes for free and performing tasks outside
of the job description like cleaning the studio, stacking piles of money at his house, and
depositing money into his bank accounts.
Bad Deals
From 2013 to 2020, Gumucio, Haven, and Anderson worked out a scheme to avoid reporting income
to the IRS.
They paid employees in cash off the books, refused to provide his instructors with tax
documents, didn’t maintain financial records, and paid personal expenses with business accounts.
Two of the three owners submitted fake tax returns when trying to take out a loan or
seek an apartment but they never filed any tax returns with the IRS.
By the mid-2010s, the Brooklyn branch of Yoga to the People alone brought in nearly half
a million dollars over a six month period.
The owners used the money for world travel, season tickets for sports games, designer
clothing, and horseback riding.
Gumucio had Denver Broncos season tickets from 2011 to 2014 with a value of $41,000.
Soliman spent $49,000 in horse shows and equipment from 2017 to 2018.
From 2015 to 2020, Gumucio used company bank accounts to pay for other personal expenses
including $160,000 in personal credit card bills, $270,000 on flights, $75,000 on hotels,
and $40,000 on restaurants.
Yoga Alliance, a nonprofit organization that sets the standards for yoga teacher certification
and studio wellbeing, started an investigation into Yoga to the People for the inappropriate
relationships Gumucio had with his students and allegations of tax evasion.
In 2020, Gumucio closed its doors due to the covid pandemic.
Meanwhile, allegations surfaced on social media against Gumucio for his aggressive,
racist, and discriminatory practices.
Aftermath
Gumucio, Anderson, and Haven were arrested and taken into custody in Washington State
in August 2022.
They were each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS, which carries a maximum
sentence of five years in prison, and two counts of tax evasion, each of which carries
a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
2 - No Promos
Andres Fernandez
Andres Fernandez offered clients a win-win situation: invest in the glamorous music industry
and earn a 100% return on investment.
Fernandez’s grand plan came to a screeching halt when it was discovered that he was running
a Ponzi-scheme that was paying back older investors with newer investors’ money.
But it didn’t start out as a sham.
Fernandez was a successful concert promoter who worked with small venues in and around
Orlando, Florida.
He brought his investors to some of his concerts just to show him that he was legitimate.
He told his investors about his plans to expand the small venues to stadium-sized concert
halls and book international artists like Pitbull, The Weeknd, Mana, Drake, and Garth
Brooks.
But of course, Fernandez never had that authority, and never had those plans.
Edison Denizard
Fernandez started his scheme in 2016 and continued for a little more than a year.
His initial investors were his close friends and neighbors.
Edison Denizard was one of the very first investors who believed in Fernandez’s visions,
especially when he received large returns.
He told other potential clients about his success with Fernandez and brought in new
investors.
Denizard recruited millionaires to invest, which allowed the scheme to develop to huge
proportions.
While the average return for a promoter is about 10%, Fernandez and Denizard promised
investors a 50 to 100% return on investment by taking advantage of the fact that not many
people know how the music industry really works.
He produced fraudulent documents to give to his investors like fake Ticketmaster contracts
or contracts with artists.
Investors
Fernandez’s company, Kadaae, raised nearly $21 million from a minimum of 56 investors
over a two year period.
Meanwhile, Denizard’s company Ahead of the Game, raised over $10 million from at least
78 investors.
While Fernandez and Denizard told investors that their money would be used to expand entertainment
venues and produce concert events, a small percentage of the money actually went towards
this.
Instead, Fernandez and Denizard paid off investors with other investors’ money and used at
least $1 million for personal use.
Denizard purchased a lakefront property, luxury car, and five-star hotel stays.
But eventually, Fernandez ran out of funds.
One of his investors hired a lawyer who quickly found out that his client was the victim of
a fraudulent scheme.
Some of the investors lost their entire life savings, including college funds and 401ks.
Aftermath
Denizard was sentenced to four years and nine months in federal prison for Conspiracy to
Commit Wire Fraud.
He was also forced to forfeit his property and received a money judgment of $1.7 million
against him.
Fernandez pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The judge called him Orlando’s “Bernie Madoff.”
Even though Fernandez and Denizard were found guilty, their victims will probably only receive
a fraction of the money they lost.
1 - Christian Custom Homes
Phillip Michael Carter
Philip Michael Carter, CEO of Christian Custom Homes, is facing state fraud charges for misusing
investor funds for personal use.
Carter told prospective investors that had a chemical engineering degree from the University
of Virginia and was a project engineer for Texas Instruments.
He also said that he previously worked with the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki.
Christian Custom Homes
Carter told investors he needed funding to develop commercial and residential properties
in Texas.
His victims were mostly elderly Texans who were gullible to his lies and invested their
savings in Texas Cash Cow Investments, Inc. and North Forty Development LLC.
Carter and his associates raised over $17.5 million by nearly 100 investors.
He hooked his victims by showing off his award-winning firm and photos of the luxury homes he built
throughout Frisco.
He called it “a blend of California indoor-outdoor living with a modern Texas Hill Country Design.”
He met a growing demand for a niche architecture style while doing it with a crazy fast turnaround–under
six months.
Not only were the homes beautiful, but they were full of surprises too with secret rooms,
hidden doors, and indoor basketball courts.
Carter’s money issues started in 2016 when he wrote a $6 million check to pay for labor
and materials for projects but the check bounced.
In October 2016, Carter raised $32 million in funding from a private equity firm in Seattle
to pay for the ongoing construction costs of two properties.
But, the catch with this agreement was that investors would be put at high risk of not
receiving their money back if Carter defaulted on the loan.
But Carter’s investors didn’t know this.
They also didn’t know that in 2016, one of Carter’s sales agents, Bobby Guess, received
a letter from the U.S. Attorney’s Office saying that he was being investigated for
mail fraud, money laundering, and securities fraud.
Guess was sentenced to 12 years in state prison.
Co-conspirators
Carter didn’t act alone.
His wife, Shelly Noel Carter, also helped run the scheme in addition to his sales agents,
Bob Guess, Robert Tilford, and a former pastor, Timothy Lloyd Boot for advertising the fraudulent
scheme.
Instead of using funds for the new developments as promised, Carter paid off personal expenses
and a personal IRS tax lien.
He became short on cash for his luxury construction projects, so he and his co-conspirators defrauded
hundreds of investors trying to pay off their debts.
The Texas State Securities Board entered a Cease and Desist against Guess and others
in 2016.
They conducted a search warrant, unbeknownst to investors, and continued to raise millions
of dollars for the North Forty Investment program afterwards.
Christian Custom Homes continued to lure investors through brochures, radio interviews, and invitations
to fancy dinners.
Carter and his salesmen told prospective investors about opportunities for a 9% return on investment
with North Forty Development and Texas First Financial, even though they knew that their
money would be spent paying off debts, instead of working on construction projects.
Aftermath
Guess was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Tilford was sentenced to 12 years behind bars for securities fraud and violating registration
laws.
Booth received a sentence of 68 years in state prison for promoting the scheme through his
digital advertising company.
Carter was indicted on charges related to the sale of fraudulent promissory notes.
His wife was charged with money laundering and misusing investor funds.
Carter and his wife were indicted by a grand jury in November 2018 and tried and convicted
in March 2022.
He was sentenced the following May to 45 years in prison.
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