grand finity play Yoga to the People Founder Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion
The founder and co-owner of Yoga to the People, a wildly successful chain of studios that began in the East Village of Manhattan and later spread to nearly half a dozen states outside New York before closing in 2020grand finity play, pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion on Friday.
Gregory Gumucio, the founder and co-owner, received more than $3.5 million in income between 2012 and 2020 but did not file individual or business tax returns or pay income taxes for at least eight consecutive years, according to federal prosecutors. He faces up to five years in prison for the tax evasion charge and will be sentenced in January.
Mr. Gumucio has agreed to pay at least $2.5 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service under the terms of his plea agreement.
Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement that Mr. Gumucio had “built a thriving yoga business yet chose to evade his tax obligations for nearly a decade,” before adding that his office was “committed to holding individuals accountable who fail to pay their fair share.”
Yoga to the People began as a small studio in the East Village in 2006. It had a pay-what-you-can model and, in its early years, an enviable roster of instructors, including Hilaria Baldwin, the social media influencer and wife of the actor Alec Baldwin. Sofia Kristina Hellqvist, a Swedish reality star, taught for the chain, dated Mr. Gumucio and later became Princess Sofia, Duchess of Värmland, after marrying into the nation’s royal family.
But the studio’s bohemian glamour was built on a foundation of financial illegality, prosecutors said. In court on Friday, Mr. Gumucio, 63, apologized for not paying taxes.
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