Yoga business founder pleads guilty to tax charge in New York City

NEW YORK — An international yoga business founder whose chain of yoga studios promoted themselves as “Yoga to the People” pleaded guilty on Friday to a tax charge in a New York federal court.

Gregory Gumucio, 63, of Colorado, apologized as he admitted not paying over $2.5 million in taxes from 2012 to 2020. He was freed on bail to await a Jan. 16 sentencing by Judge John P. Cronan, who questioned Gumucio during the plea proceeding.

A plea agreement Gumucio reached with prosecutors calls for him to receive a sentence of about five years in prison, the maximum amount of time he could face after pleading guilty to a single count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

Two other defendants are awaiting trial in the case.

Gumucio’s business, which generated over $20 million in revenue, had operated in about 20 locations in the United States, including in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland, California; Tempe, Arizona; Orlando, Florida; and cities in Colorado and Washington. It also operated in 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 the living in Cathlamet, Washington, and had been arrested 15 times and had in the past used at least six aliases, three Social Security numbers and claimed three places of birth.

He was eventually freed on $250,000 bail by a magistrate judge who noted that his last previous arrest was in 1992.

In court on Friday, Gumucio acknowledged that he had agreed to pay $2.56 million in restitution, along with interest, to the IRS.

He said he didn’t pay the taxes from 2012 to 2020.

“I apologize for that,” he told Cronan, saying he operated yoga studios in Manhattan’s East Village and elsewhere in the United States during those years.

Under questioning from the judge, Gumucio said yoga teachers were paid in cash, and he didn’t provide them tax forms indicating how much revenue had been taken in.

“I deliberately did not file tax returns to avoid paying taxes,” he said.

He said he was currently living in Colorado, though he did not specify where.

As he left the courthouse, Gumucio kept his head bowed once he realized he was being photographed. He declined to comment.