0:00

This episode contains disturbing content,

0:02

including discussions about high control groups,

0:05

eating disorders, and sexual assault. Please

0:07

take care while listening.

0:12

Kiss. Beep.

0:16

Some people are seekers. Maybe

0:18

they go to church or escape to nature,

0:21

searching for answers to life's big

0:23

questions,

0:25

searching for a place to belong.

0:27

In 2006, a yoga studio called

0:30

Yoga to the People offered just that.

0:32

It opened in Manhattan's East Village.

0:35

As our base becomes really solid, really strong,

0:37

we grow lighter through the heart. So lift

0:39

the heart up toward the ceiling as you tuck the tailbone

0:42

under.

0:43

In the early aughts, yoga was becoming

0:45

very popular, but a lot of the studios

0:47

were not accessible, especially

0:49

in New York, where class packages

0:52

could cost hundreds of dollars. But

0:54

Yoga to the People was different. Classes

0:56

were donation-based, with a suggested

0:59

donation of just $10.

1:01

The first Yoga to the People studio opened

1:03

just blocks from the NYU campus.

1:06

It was like a dream come true. It was donation-based, but $10

1:09

suggested yoga all hours,

1:11

it seemed, like, from morning to night.

1:13

Yoga to the People attracted everyone from

1:16

college students to celebrities. Influencer

1:18

Hilaria Baldwin, wife to Alec Baldwin,

1:21

taught there for a while. Along with Swedish

1:23

reality TV star-turned-princess

1:26

Sofia Christina Helkvist. At

1:29

the front of every class was always

1:31

this group of beautiful, advanced

1:33

women, Yoga to the People's top

1:36

staff. It felt like a

1:38

cool kids' club, a cool girls' club. You

1:40

know, I just really wanted to be a part of it. It

1:43

was

1:43

founded by Greg Gamusio, a

1:46

charismatic guy who went on to build

1:48

a yoga empire based

1:50

on the idea that yoga was not just for the

1:52

elite, it was for everyone. Thus

1:55

the name, Yoga to the People. Greg

1:58

would often read the.

1:59

mantra to the class at

2:02

the end of class. Okay, here

2:04

we go. This yoga is for everyone. This

2:07

sweating and breathing and becoming, this

2:10

knowing, glowing feeling, is for

2:12

the big, small, weak and strong,

2:15

able and crazy. Brothers, sisters,

2:17

grandmothers, the mighty and meek, bones

2:20

that creak, those who seek, this power

2:22

is for everyone. Yoga to the people,

2:25

all bodies rise. I

2:27

just got chills reading that. But

2:29

not in

2:29

the way you think. I was just

2:32

thinking everything that this says is

2:35

the opposite of what he did and

2:38

what he created.

2:40

Greg Gomusio built a yoga empire

2:42

around the idea that everyone

2:44

should have affordable access to the healing

2:47

power

2:47

of yoga. But actually

2:49

belonging in Greg's inner circle came

2:52

at a great price. He was not

2:54

the benevolent yogi that the world believed

2:56

him to be.

2:58

Behind the loving mantras and

3:00

the thriving studios was

3:02

a man obsessed with making money

3:04

and controlling women.

3:06

I would hear all the places bugged, like

3:09

he knows everything that you're doing. He

3:11

sleeps with all the teachers. It's a cult. He

3:13

hits the teachers. So

3:15

I was scared of what he could physically do as well.

3:18

I was in a state of survival. And he put all

3:21

of these controls around us in such a way

3:23

that it felt like we had no

3:25

way to get out. It was extremely painful

3:27

and difficult. And I did not know that

3:30

I was in a cult yet. From

3:33

cast media, this is the opportunist.

3:37

This is Greg Gomusio, Circle

3:40

of Trust. A

3:42

story told in one episode. I'm

3:46

Hannah Smith. Hey Prime

3:48

members, you can listen to the opportunist

3:51

ad free on Amazon.

3:56

Amazon

4:00

Music. Download the Amazon Music app

4:02

today.

4:06

Jill Bain is a yoga teacher in Florida,

4:08

but back in 2008, she was a struggling

4:10

musician in New York City, bartending

4:13

to make ends meet.

4:14

One night at work, Jill's friend recommended

4:17

this amazing place, Yoga

4:19

to the People.

4:20

I had been complaining that I was poor

4:23

because being an artist in New York City

4:25

is really challenging. And

4:28

on top of that, my knee was bothering me. I

4:31

wasn't even having trouble working out at all.

4:34

So she said, you should come with me to this place

4:37

in St. Mark's place called Yoga to the People.

4:40

At the time, Jill was craving community,

4:42

a place where she could feel safe enough

4:45

to be herself, to connect with other artists

4:47

and find support. And when Jill

4:49

got to the Yoga to the People studio, it

4:52

seemed like just that kind of place. The

4:54

class was buzzing. There were people wall

4:57

to wall chatting as they waited

4:59

for their teacher to arrive.

5:01

Everyone seemed to know everyone.

5:03

I mean, there was probably 50, 60 students

5:06

in there, mat to mat. And everybody

5:08

was talking and there was a lot of energy

5:10

in the room.

5:11

And there seemed to

5:13

be these women who I now know were teachers

5:16

kind of running around, like

5:19

preparing for his big entrance.

5:23

And then Jill noticed a man enter

5:25

the studio. She

5:27

quickly realized this was who all

5:29

the buzz was about.

5:31

He had at the time dark, like

5:33

almost black hair, brown, dark brown, pretty

5:37

fit. I'd say maybe

5:39

five, ten, five, eleven. He had

5:42

a handsome face. I thought he was attractive. I

5:45

thought maybe he was 40, but he

5:47

was much older than that. Before

5:49

Jill knew who this man was,

5:51

she knew he was important by the way people

5:53

treated him. He had a presence

5:55

about him that she couldn't help but notice. And

5:59

he noticed her doing it.

6:00

I remember that he

6:03

looked at me. He stopped like

6:05

dead in his tracks and stared at me

6:08

in a way that made me feel... I don't

6:11

know how to describe it. It felt like I

6:14

almost like we had a moment. I

6:17

felt seen by someone

6:20

important

6:20

and so there was this like elusive

6:23

nature to the moment and to him

6:26

which I immediately noticed that

6:28

he was like the star. Jill

6:31

had locked eyes with Greg Gamuseo,

6:33

the owner and founder of Yoga to the People.

6:36

Jill would later come to understand

6:38

that Greg's attention was like currency

6:41

at Yoga to the People and on this

6:43

day he chose to focus it on

6:45

her.

6:46

I had really short hair at

6:49

the time and so I didn't bring

6:51

a hair tie because I didn't realize what I was

6:53

getting into and he came over and gave me

6:55

a hair tie and

6:56

I just felt noticed by him. I felt

6:58

seen and that felt good to me. Abruptly

7:02

the class began. I saw

7:04

him kind of shut

7:06

the door and he just said child's pose and

7:08

he yelled it out

7:09

really loud and immediately everyone

7:11

in the room got silent and the energy

7:14

really shifted and the music started playing.

7:17

Jill said all the women in the front row

7:19

were beautiful and fit and really

7:22

good at yoga and they all seemed

7:24

like close friends. I remember

7:26

thinking oh wow like who are all these

7:28

people in the front row they're so good at this

7:31

and he kept adjusting them and touching them

7:33

and addressing them and Jill didn't

7:35

know it yet but these women were all part

7:37

of Greg's inner circle. The ones

7:40

who lived and breathed Yoga to

7:42

the People. The ones who everyone

7:44

noticed because Greg had first

7:46

noticed them. What

7:49

were the demographics of that class or

7:51

most of the classes you know was it mostly women

7:54

young women or what was there a range?

7:56

Mostly women some men but

7:59

mostly women. attractive,

8:01

pretty skinny, I would say NYU age

8:03

people. And

8:07

what made you want to return after that first

8:09

class? Him, his

8:12

energy, the class, everyone

8:16

was excited to be there. It was

8:18

inexpensive. I liked going into the

8:20

city. I liked being on St. Mark's Place.

8:23

I started like three or four days a week.

8:25

At first, Jill couldn't help but be

8:27

charmed by Greg. He was good

8:29

looking, charismatic. He seemed

8:32

to have answers to life's big questions.

8:35

And the way that Greg taught his classes,

8:38

it was unusual to say the least. But

8:40

for Jill at the time,

8:42

there was something refreshing about it. Greg

8:44

encouraged people to release their

8:47

emotions while they practiced yoga.

8:49

The type of music that he

8:51

played in class would often

8:54

evoke an emotional reaction from people.

8:56

And he also encouraged people to

8:58

loudly have their emotional reactions

9:01

in class. So there were oftentimes many people

9:03

crying.

9:04

He described it as dispelling

9:06

energy in the body, negative energy. And

9:09

so he encouraged us to make any sounds

9:11

that we liked audibly.

9:13

And he would mimic some of those sounds, grown. And

9:18

a lot of the women, especially in the front

9:20

row, would make these like overtly

9:22

sexual sounds.

9:25

Jill told me that she had been a gym rat most

9:28

of her life, but she'd never experienced

9:30

anything like this. It felt radical

9:33

and cool and different. And she

9:35

started to gain confidence and make friends

9:38

and feel at home.

9:40

The women that worked there at the time

9:43

that I still consider my friends, they

9:45

were very sexy

9:48

and they were really cool. And

9:50

they were really nice.

9:52

They gave me physical adjustments.

9:55

And those physical adjustments felt

9:57

intimate, not in a sexual way, but it felt like.

9:59

they saw me and

10:01

they cared about me, you know, and they would

10:03

come up and

10:04

like breathe with me while

10:06

in the adjustment and it just felt like this,

10:09

like a family. G

10:30

and

10:30

she said it in a way that

10:32

made me feel like she had been thinking

10:34

about me. Like, I like you

10:37

should really do this training. I think you would make a good teacher.

10:40

Jill felt chosen and it felt good.

10:43

What were your hopes and dreams

10:45

for it at that moment? How did you feel and what did

10:47

you want from this? My goal

10:50

was to be like

10:51

in the top 10 teachers

10:53

that he had because they were on salary.

10:56

They made a living teaching yoga and

10:58

I wanted to have a job

11:01

that I liked not working in bars

11:03

and then also be able to do my music. And

11:05

I really saw a potential for

11:08

success in that.

11:09

She signed up for the training but had to borrow

11:11

money from a friend in order to do it.

11:14

Back in 2008, each student had

11:16

to pay around $2,500 for the course, which was a lot

11:18

of money to

11:21

Jill at that time. But

11:22

she saw it as an investment in her

11:24

future. She showed up that first

11:27

day excited, ready to dive

11:29

in and learn. But

11:31

on that day, she noticed something

11:34

puzzling about Greg and the teachers.

11:37

Greg came in with his

11:40

young son,

11:42

who was three at the time, maybe three and

11:44

a half. And he had these

11:46

three women come in and

11:48

sort of play with the boy. And

11:51

it felt like I could there were three

11:54

women there. And I was like, which one

11:56

is his wife? Because all of them

11:58

were handling.

12:00

his son like they were his mother. This

12:02

was one of the first instances in

12:05

which Jill noticed that the boundaries

12:07

between employee and employer were

12:09

a little blurred. Were

12:11

they all involved with Greg romantically?

12:15

But Jill put that thought out of her mind because

12:18

Greg and his teachers all but guaranteed

12:20

a psychic shift with this teacher

12:23

training. Your life will never

12:25

be the same in this training, but

12:27

there are going to be points where you don't understand

12:29

what's going on. Greg said this to me personally,

12:32

um, on

12:32

several occasions, like

12:35

you might notice as

12:38

you go through this training that your family doesn't

12:40

seem to understand you where

12:43

you notice that they are starting to distance

12:45

themselves from you or that you are starting

12:47

to distance yourself from them.

12:49

But families

12:51

can be chosen sometimes and

12:53

we, we are your family. Jill

12:56

told me that she had experienced a lot of emotional

12:58

abuse as a child and she was still dealing

13:01

with that at yoga to the people.

13:03

She felt supported, known, accepted.

13:07

It was almost like Greg knew exactly

13:09

what to say to her, exactly what

13:11

she wanted to hear in order

13:13

to gain her total

13:15

loyalty.

13:32

You can follow rate

13:34

and review the opportunist on Apple

13:36

podcasts. It really does make a difference.

13:38

So thank you.

13:48

Yoga to the people's teacher training was over

13:51

two months long and took place over the

13:53

course of 10 weekends.

13:55

They learned everything from anatomy to

13:57

the different types of yoga to philosophy.

14:00

to how to lead a class and make adjustments

14:02

to students.

14:03

Jill took the training seriously.

14:06

She wanted to be in that front

14:08

row of women in all of Greg's yoga

14:10

classes.

14:11

She wanted to be a great teacher.

14:14

According to Jill, there was nothing unusual

14:16

about the teacher training.

14:18

That is, until the third weekend.

14:20

Greg had one

14:23

of his senior teachers go to the front

14:25

of the room

14:26

and face us. And we were all standing in

14:28

rows, separated about

14:31

six feet apart. And he told

14:33

us that

14:34

we need to stand with our arms raised like

14:36

this for

14:37

an hour. And I was like, what? That's

14:40

it. At first, it almost

14:42

sounded comical. Raise your

14:44

arms up, hold them up. That's it?

14:47

I don't know why. I thought that that would not

14:49

be a big deal,

14:51

but

14:51

it was the most excruciating,

14:54

psychologically taxing thing

14:57

I think other than giving birth that

15:00

I've ever done.

15:02

And he had teachers standing behind

15:04

all of us

15:05

so that we wouldn't drop our arms because

15:08

I wanted to, but

15:11

we were not allowed to. And we had to slowly

15:13

lower them

15:16

over the course of the first 30 minutes. And

15:18

then the course of the rest of their 30 minutes, we had to slowly

15:20

lift them back up. And our arms had

15:22

to be engaged. We had to be standing

15:25

in mountain pose the whole time.

15:27

And by the time we were done,

15:30

there was not a dry eye in the house. People

15:32

were in puddles on the floor,

15:35

crying like convulsively crying,

15:38

hyperventilating, screaming.

15:41

And it was a very vulnerable

15:44

moment.

15:45

And he encouraged us to have those

15:47

emotional reactions. And

15:50

the woman at the front, who was one

15:52

of his senior teachers, she was doing it

15:54

too. And she was crying too. And we were all

15:57

having this experience together. But

16:00

there's the psychological element

16:02

to it. And also he was blasting Celine

16:04

Dion music the whole time.

16:06

Like Celine Dion ballads.

16:10

Everyone in the class was broken

16:12

down at this point, both physically

16:14

and mentally, from the arm-raising exercise.

16:18

They were vulnerable and exhausted.

16:21

And that is precisely when Greg introduced

16:23

the next activity, the circle

16:26

of trust.

16:27

We all got in this big circle. And

16:29

he

16:30

said, this is called the circle

16:32

of trust.

16:34

And each of you are going to stand up

16:36

and go in the middle of

16:37

the circle and tell us something that

16:40

absolutely no one knows

16:42

about you,

16:43

your deepest, darkest

16:45

secret. And he had

16:47

one of the teachers get up and

16:50

give us an example. Show

16:52

us what he means by that. And she

16:54

was like, I was raped.

16:57

And she got down and kind of huddled in

16:59

the fetal position on the floor.

17:00

Jill and the

17:02

rest of the students were stunned. The

17:05

teachers' confession set a very specific

17:08

tone for what the other trainees were

17:10

expected to reveal. A

17:12

lot of it was struggle with substance abuse.

17:14

There were a few eating disorders,

17:16

rape. I

17:19

spent time in jail. I was a criminal.

17:22

All kinds of things like that. Greg

17:25

would encourage people to go as dark as

17:27

possible with their secret.

17:29

If someone didn't say a big enough secret,

17:31

he would scoff at them and tell them to try

17:33

again.

17:35

This was a crucial moment for Jill. She

17:37

knew immediately what her biggest secret

17:39

was. For me, my

17:42

biggest

17:43

thing was my eating disorder. And I carried

17:46

tremendous shame.

17:48

I mean, I remember thinking, I have

17:50

to do this. I have to tell everybody.

17:53

And it's going to be freeing. It's going to be good for

17:55

me. And then I can start to heal. And

17:57

I'll finally get rid of this awful disease or whatever.

18:00

And my heart was pounding. I

18:02

was so scared and I got up and told everybody.

18:05

It was just silent and I

18:07

didn't feel better.

18:08

I felt embarrassed and ashamed.

18:11

And now looking back, I know that this

18:13

was his way, I believe,

18:15

of kind of sussing us out

18:18

and deciding who he could

18:20

manipulate and groom the most.

18:23

Jill wanted to show Greg that she was dedicated

18:25

to yoga to the people, dedicated to

18:27

him.

18:28

So she had opened up and told everyone

18:31

her darkest secret.

18:33

She left that day with a mix of emotions,

18:35

ashamed, but also already

18:38

so deeply devoted to this world

18:40

Greg had created.

18:41

But it turns out that this was not a

18:44

safe world for someone with an eating

18:46

disorder.

18:47

I spoke with Sarah Thomas, who also went

18:49

through the Yoga to the People teacher training.

18:52

She said that some teachers were encouraged

18:54

to lose weight under the guise

18:57

of making their yoga practice stronger.

18:59

They would push it on you if you were close

19:01

to someone and they said, well, maybe you should be vegan.

19:03

Have you thought about losing weight? Your practice

19:05

isn't as strong. Some people would take that to heart

19:08

or feel like you're not being taken

19:10

seriously or judged. So,

19:12

yeah,

19:13

that culture was there. A few of my closest

19:15

teachers actually were really under the

19:17

influence of that. Some people were really,

19:20

they had terrible eating disorders and the behavior

19:23

was just ignored or encouraged.

19:25

After devoting 10 weekends to the teacher

19:27

training, which cost each student $2,500,

19:29

Jill's class graduated and

19:33

everyone prepared to start teaching yoga

19:36

at Yoga to the People. But there

19:38

was another step they had to go through before

19:40

they could actually start getting paid to teach.

19:44

Greg's apprenticeship program.

19:47

It wasn't really an apprenticeship at all. It

19:49

just meant that the newly graduated yoga

19:51

teachers had to teach 25 classes

19:54

at Yoga to the People for free.

19:57

But even after that, getting

19:59

on with it, on the paid teacher training schedule

20:02

wasn't guaranteed. Did you witness

20:05

other people that you knew through

20:07

the teacher trainings, through going to the studio, that went

20:10

through paid for the teacher training and

20:12

then taught free classes

20:15

and then were never hired? Many,

20:19

many. And what reason were they given

20:21

that they weren't hired? They weren't given

20:23

a reason, they were just not put

20:26

back on the schedule. Most,

20:28

but not all, of the classes on the Yoga

20:30

to the People schedule were being taught by

20:32

people who were in this unpaid

20:34

apprenticeship program. Here's

20:37

Sarah again. They have a habit of

20:39

scheduling

20:39

apprentices like

20:42

every day, every week. They prioritize

20:44

new teachers over older teachers. Sarah

20:48

was determined to make Yoga to the People

20:50

a priority in her life, to make

20:52

most of her money by teaching yoga. So

20:55

she made herself completely available to

20:57

the yoga studio. She worked hard. She

21:00

completed the teacher training and then taught 25

21:02

free classes and finally

21:04

made it onto the paid teacher schedule.

21:07

And then she made it another level up.

21:09

She became a caretaker. That's

21:12

a Yoga to the People term for assistant

21:14

manager. So if I'm caretaking,

21:17

then you're automatically guaranteed to teach. We

21:19

got paid $35 a class and

21:21

you get paid once a month. I

21:23

got paid $50 a night for caretaking.

21:26

On top of a class, so

21:28

that's like, what,

21:32

a hundred something dollars for nine

21:35

to 10 hours of labor. Caretakers

21:38

got priority scheduling because they

21:40

were doing a lot of extra work. But

21:43

the reality was they weren't getting paid that

21:45

much more. Yoga to the

21:48

People was spreading like wildfire.

21:50

Every class was packed wall to

21:52

wall with eager students. And

21:55

yet behind the scenes, it was mostly

21:57

running on unpaid and underpaid.

21:59

labor. The

22:02

teachers had been sold an idea that

22:04

being chosen by Greg would eventually

22:07

pay off both spiritually and financially.

22:10

They

22:10

just had to put in some time and effort.

22:13

Jill graduated from the teacher training in 2009,

22:15

and her story is unusual because she was

22:19

one of the very few people who did not have

22:22

to go

22:22

through the apprenticeship program. Greg

22:25

made an exception for her.

22:27

And to this day, Jill doesn't know why

22:29

she was so favored.

22:31

But at the time, it made her feel really

22:34

good, special, chosen.

22:36

We had a personal relationship.

22:38

I felt comfortable texting him and calling

22:40

him.

22:41

And I said, I'm trying to

22:43

move out of my boyfriend's house and I

22:45

really need to be some steady income,

22:49

so he brought me on. I never had to teach

22:51

a class for free. I got

22:53

special treatment.

22:56

Jill was grateful for Greg's help, but

22:59

she also started to feel indebted

23:01

to him.

23:02

One time I needed an advance on my

23:04

pay, and he just gave me $1,000. Or he had his

23:06

supervisor

23:07

pay for my

23:09

deposit on my apartment.

23:11

So that was another

23:13

way of kind of keeping me like, I'll give

23:15

you gifts, I'll take care of you. You're

23:17

not going to be destitute. Another

23:20

time, he offered to pay her to teach him

23:22

guitar. So he's like, come

23:24

to my apartment, I brought my guitar over. He

23:26

took me into the bedroom,

23:28

sat me on the bed, and he said, play this song for

23:30

me.

23:31

And I played the song. And then

23:33

he said, good.

23:34

And he wrote me a check for $200, $250 and told me to leave. And I was like,

23:39

what just happened?

23:42

But over time, Jill felt that she

23:44

owed Greg for all the financial

23:46

help he'd given her. And what Greg

23:49

asked in return was total and

23:51

complete loyalty.

23:53

First of all, we were not allowed to teach

23:55

at other yoga studios. He expected

23:58

total loyalty. Second,

24:00

if we wanted to be on the schedule, we

24:03

needed to send in our availability.

24:05

If our availability wasn't completely

24:08

available,

24:09

you were, like, 95% less likely to be hired.

24:14

By 2010, Yoga to the People had

24:16

three studios across New York City with

24:18

two more on the way. Jill

24:20

said that teachers were supposed to get their

24:22

schedules on Sunday nights, letting

24:25

them know what days and locations

24:27

they would be teaching that week. But

24:29

the schedule never arrived on time,

24:32

and she ended up losing sleep and

24:34

becoming obsessively tied to her phone,

24:36

waiting for the schedule. It would

24:39

often come at the last minute, but

24:41

Greg still expected you to drop whatever

24:43

you were doing

24:44

and go teach a class.

24:46

What happened was, Sunday at midnight,

24:49

we would get partial honey

24:52

Monday and Tuesday, but only two

24:54

studios every night. I'd

24:56

be up till midnight, waiting for the schedule

24:58

to come out to see if I was teaching at 6 o'clock

25:01

in the morning and which studio I

25:03

was teaching at. Not only were

25:05

teachers at the mercy of the schedule,

25:07

they were also only paid once a month,

25:10

and Greg paid everyone in cash.

25:13

The fifth of every month, we had to go

25:15

physically to his apartment, and we would

25:17

be handed an envelope filled with cash.

25:20

Fives and we were lucky 20s,

25:23

you know, and at the time, I was getting about, what

25:26

amounts to about $4,000 a month in cash, and

25:29

I still couldn't afford

25:30

to live. Yoga

25:32

to the People didn't provide employees

25:35

W-2s or 1099s. One

25:38

night, Jill was instructed to

25:40

go to Greg's apartment just

25:41

across from the studio, along

25:44

with a few other teachers for a meeting,

25:46

but Jill found out that there was a name for these

25:49

meetings. They were called stacking

25:51

parties. There were three

25:55

industrial-size black garbage

25:57

bags filled with cash,

25:58

and we were... going over and

26:00

grabbing handfuls of it and,

26:03

you know, flattening it out and sorting

26:06

them. Remember,

26:08

yoga to the people was donation-based,

26:10

and they only accepted cash.

26:13

Some people paid nothing, but many

26:15

paid something, usually the suggested

26:17

amount of $10. And

26:19

with around-the-clock classes, 60

26:22

to 70 students deep every class,

26:24

that's tens of thousands of dollars

26:27

a day, just for one location.

26:29

We were told, do not count the bills.

26:32

Just flatten them out, sort

26:34

them out, and put them into piles. And sometimes

26:36

we would sit on them. I was told

26:38

to sit on the bills. And we drank wine and

26:41

talked about

26:42

surface-y stuff.

26:43

And then

26:45

his right-hand woman would take that money into

26:47

another room, and

26:49

I don't know what happened to it.

27:08

Greg kept the labor costs low,

27:11

but he would often take staff out to

27:13

extravagant dinners in Manhattan's

27:15

top restaurants. At these dinners,

27:17

Greg encouraged people to dish

27:20

about their personal lives.

27:22

Here's Sarah again. Greg would take

27:24

us to expensive dinners at like Nobu

27:27

or

27:28

Rosa Mexicana. We'd always got there.

27:31

And that's when, you know, comments and stuff

27:34

comes out about other teachers or even

27:36

students. The conversation did not

27:38

stay on the topic of yoga. It

27:40

stayed on personal lives.

27:43

Like I told Greg it's none of his business, who

27:45

I'm dating or what I'm interested in, and

27:47

that turns him off. He doesn't want

27:49

to hear that. He wants to hear about your boyfriend

27:52

and how it's going and, you know, oh,

27:54

does he treat you right, et cetera, et cetera. So

27:56

he asked those questions at dinner while I was 19.

27:58

and he

28:00

ordered me a glass of wine.

28:02

Greg had tight control over the

28:05

yoga to the people teachers, and

28:07

over time Jill realized that

28:09

the hold that he had over some of them

28:12

was of a sexual nature.

28:14

He was sleeping with

28:15

almost, if not all, you know,

28:18

most of the

28:19

women. Most of them thought they were his girlfriend

28:22

and had no idea that

28:25

he was sleeping with

28:27

a lot of them. That is how

28:29

much control he had over the narrative,

28:32

and we were not allowed to talk about

28:34

him. That was something that he pressed,

28:37

and I learned that

28:38

the hard way. Sometime

28:40

in mid to late 2010, Jill

28:42

called her superior. She was

28:44

bothered by the rumors about Greg manipulating

28:47

and sleeping with female staff members. Was

28:50

it true?

28:51

She wanted to know.

28:53

I had gone to my superior because

28:55

I had heard some of these things, and I was starting to get

28:57

really concerned and quite frankly, a little

28:59

bit scared. And I said

29:01

to him, you know, I'm

29:04

hearing these rumors, particularly, and

29:06

quite specifically, that Greg has

29:09

a harem

29:11

of women that he controls

29:13

and manipulates. And he was like,

29:16

oh, no, no, no, no, no. He just kind of

29:18

poo-pooed it, and I was like, okay, you know. Jill

29:21

hung up. Then, a few minutes

29:23

later, her phone rang. It

29:25

looked like her manager was calling her right back,

29:28

but it wasn't her manager. When

29:31

I answered the phone, it's not him, it's Greg.

29:34

Screaming into my ear and threatening

29:36

me, don't you ever talk about me.

29:39

You're not allowed to talk about me.

29:41

Why are you talking about me? I gave you

29:43

money. Screaming, screaming about the

29:45

money. And I

29:47

realized in that moment, the only way that

29:49

I could

29:50

survive, get through

29:52

that, was to say that I was

29:54

protecting him. And as soon as I said

29:56

that, he turned it back

29:59

to

29:59

normal.

30:00

And he was like, oh, okay, good. What

30:02

do you mean by protecting him? I said, no,

30:04

no, I told him about that because I was trying to protect

30:06

you. And I wanted him to know what

30:09

people were saying about you. I was trying to

30:11

protect you. That was how I was able

30:13

to spin that so that

30:15

I didn't get fired or, I don't

30:17

know what, not paid or taken

30:20

off the schedule, anything. I mean, in

30:22

that moment, I was so scared because he was threatening

30:24

me. Jill was able to convince

30:27

Greg that she wasn't ratting him out. Instead,

30:29

she was trying to inform him of rumors

30:32

being

30:32

spread about him in order to protect

30:34

his reputation. But the interaction

30:37

left her shaken. Greg's

30:39

attention, which she once craved,

30:42

had turned into something she feared.

30:44

His presence filled her with anxiety.

30:47

And even when he wasn't around, she worried.

30:50

She felt like she was being watched all

30:52

the time. I was told that

30:54

the rooms were bugged, that there were cameras everywhere,

30:57

that there were microphones. Rumor

30:59

or not, there were some visible cameras

31:01

at the studio that I worked at. And Greg

31:04

always seemed to know

31:05

everything that was going on. While

31:07

things were getting progressively worse for

31:09

Jill, the public perception

31:11

of yoga to the people and Greg Gomusio

31:14

was glowing. Greg was

31:16

becoming a star, a yoga celebrity.

31:20

In 2010, the New York Times

31:22

published an article featuring yoga

31:25

to the people called, A Yoga

31:27

Manifesto. In the article,

31:29

Greg sounds like a savior bringing

31:32

yoga to the masses, helping New

31:34

Yorkers find an affordable way to

31:36

heal themselves. In

31:38

the article, Greg speaks profusely

31:41

and admiringly about his teacher, his

31:44

main inspiration, Bikram

31:46

Chaudhry, who at the time was

31:48

probably the biggest name in yoga

31:50

in the United States. I

31:52

think he loved the attention and he loved the

31:55

people, loved him and wanted

31:57

to take his class and his hair.

33:52

for

34:00

free. By 2011,

34:02

Jill realized that her mental health was

34:05

severely suffering. I

34:07

kept thinking

34:08

that I would get to this place where I was

34:10

doing yoga all the time,

34:12

and it

34:13

would make my mind healthier,

34:16

and then I wouldn't have to throw up anymore or

34:18

something. But I kept doing it.

34:20

I wasn't getting better. In fact, I was getting worse

34:23

because I was so stressed out, and that was my

34:25

way of coping.

34:27

Through Jill's vulnerability and openness

34:30

about her past trauma, Greg had learned exactly

34:33

how to control her,

34:34

and she got to a point where she was terrified

34:37

of him all the time, scared

34:39

that he was watching her, scared

34:42

that he would call her and yell and

34:44

berate her.

34:46

Greg was unpredictable. Every few

34:48

weeks, he would arrive in New York unannounced

34:51

to teach a yoga class, and all

34:53

the teachers were expected to attend

34:55

that class, in the front

34:57

row, of course. Greg

34:59

didn't have to be physically present to

35:01

have control over Jill. Just

35:03

the idea that he might reach out to her at

35:05

any point kept her constantly

35:08

on edge.

35:09

She was in an emotionally abusive relationship

35:12

with her yoga teacher and boss, Greg

35:14

Gamousio.

35:16

I was scared all the time. What

35:17

if I had to say the wrong thing? And that was

35:20

very possible because you never knew with

35:22

Greg. It could be anything. And what were

35:24

you scared would happen if

35:26

that happened? You

35:28

know, for me,

35:30

getting fired, getting screamed at, getting

35:32

threatened, because that's what he did. He would scream

35:34

and threaten and

35:36

bully.

35:38

I grew up in an extremely abusive

35:40

household with a very scary, rage-aholic

35:43

father.

35:44

That was a huge trigger for me. I mean, I

35:46

would turn into a five-year-old. Every time

35:49

I saw him calling or

35:50

coming or anything, I would be absolutely

35:53

terrified.

35:54

Jill also felt financially trapped.

35:56

She wasn't making enough money to quit teaching.

35:59

And since she didn't have any official paperwork

36:02

documenting her work at Yoga to

36:04

the People, how could she get a job

36:06

teaching yoga somewhere else?

36:09

I was in a state of survival and he put all

36:11

of these controls around us in such a way

36:13

that we had, it felt like we had no

36:16

way to get out. And I know that sounds

36:19

hard to the layman,

36:21

but it's a very real lived

36:24

experience. It's using fear to

36:26

control people. Yeah. I

36:29

think people that don't maybe understand how

36:32

deep that sort of psychological

36:34

control can get might hear that and

36:36

ask,

36:37

after he yells at you on the phone,

36:40

why didn't you just leave or quit right away?

36:43

Right. I am so

36:45

glad that you brought that up. And that's one of the

36:47

reasons I've been so vocal

36:49

about Greg. A narcissist

36:52

or a sociopath can manipulate

36:54

people, especially that have trauma

36:57

or complex trauma, into

36:59

a level of compliance and fear. And

37:02

so that is how it felt when

37:04

I was there.

37:05

I had reached a breaking point.

37:09

I was very, very skinny.

37:12

I was not

37:13

getting enough sleep. I was not taking care of

37:15

myself.

37:17

I couldn't have really afforded it. I was

37:19

barely making it every month, having

37:21

to borrow money from friends.

37:24

And I

37:25

just started planning my escape.

37:29

And I started mailing my stuff back to my

37:32

mom's home in Colorado,

37:35

where I'm from. And

37:38

I told Greg that,

37:40

I don't know, I think I sent him an email saying

37:42

something had come up

37:44

and that I need to go home

37:45

and that I would be back,

37:47

and then I just never came back. So

37:50

did you feel like you needed to physically

37:52

remove yourself from New York to get out

37:54

of this? And

37:57

that

37:58

is the most devastating part.

37:59

Not that I don't believe everything happens

38:02

for a reason, but

38:04

I had been working as a musician for 15 years.

38:07

And once you remove yourself

38:09

from New York, it's really

38:11

hard to stay in the game, you know?

38:13

Jill left Yoga to the People

38:16

for good in 2012. She still

38:18

kept in touch with Greg through the years,

38:21

afraid that he might retaliate against

38:23

her in some way, still feeling

38:25

somewhat indebted to him.

38:27

She eventually moved to Florida and was

38:29

able to get a job teaching yoga. And

38:33

then one day, in 2016, Greg

38:35

showed up to her yoga class there, unannounced.

38:39

I saw him walking in the parking lot,

38:41

and when I tell you my knees were knocking, my heart

38:44

was racing.

38:45

And I was like, oh my God,

38:48

like, I'm really, I was really scared. So I just

38:50

taught the class. He had never taken my class

38:52

before. He laid on the floor the whole time. He didn't

38:54

even do the yoga.

38:55

He did like the first breathing exercise

38:58

in one

38:58

posture, and then he just laid on the floor. So

39:01

I was just glad when he left. And then after that, I started

39:04

carrying a gun in my purse because I do

39:06

not feel safe around him. Yoga

39:08

to the People carried on for eight more

39:10

years after Jill left. But

39:12

in July of 2020, all locations

39:15

shut down, allegedly due to

39:17

the pandemic.

39:19

On July 3rd, 2020, an Instagram

39:21

account was started called YTTP

39:24

Shadow Work. The first post says,

39:27

we are opening up this space for people

39:29

to come and talk about their experiences

39:31

in which they witnessed or were subjected

39:34

to a culture of sexism, racism,

39:36

and misogyny that runs from the head of the

39:38

company. The Instagram

39:41

posts were all anonymous, but the

39:43

page is full of extensive allegations

39:45

of abuse within yoga

39:47

to the people. In one post, a

39:49

woman explained that she was a trainee

39:51

in 2008 right out of college. When

39:54

Greg asked her to babysit for his young son,

39:57

he

39:57

then slept with her and made inappropriate

39:59

gestures to her in front of other

40:02

teachers. Another woman

40:04

told a story about going out to dinner with

40:06

Greg and being fed tequila shots

40:09

as Greg later started groping her and

40:11

tickling her back at his apartment.

40:14

There were hundreds of other posts just like

40:16

these, illustrating a culture

40:19

of manipulation, sexual abuse,

40:21

and illegal labor practices, all

40:24

orchestrated by Greg Gammusio. Other

40:27

posts claimed that the annual estimated

40:29

unpaid wages for Yoga to the People

40:32

employees was easily hundreds of

40:34

thousands of dollars. Investigators

40:36

paid attention to those numbers because two

40:39

years later, in August of 2022, Greg,

40:42

along with his wife, Haven Solomon, and

40:44

business partner Michael Anderson, were

40:47

arrested for a $20 million

40:49

tax fraud scheme. Three

40:51

leaders of the now defunct Yoga Studio

40:54

chain, Yoga to the People, are facing

40:56

federal tax fraud charges. Investigators

40:59

say the studio leaders accepted donations in cash,

41:02

paid instructors off the books, and did not

41:04

keep financial records. If convicted,

41:06

the defendants each face a maximum

41:09

of 30 years in prison.

41:11

The indictment alleges that Greg participated

41:13

in a scheme to evade taxes with various

41:16

business entities and bank

41:18

accounts, and used those entities

41:20

to pay for lavish personal expenses,

41:23

including over $200,000 in plane tickets and over $75,000 in

41:25

hotels.

41:30

According to court documents, Greg

41:32

and his partner Michael Anderson, at

41:35

one point, fabricated a tax return

41:37

so that Greg could purchase a house. They

41:40

emailed each other about who too fraudulently

41:42

say prepared the tax form.

41:45

There were other emails, too, Greg

41:47

ordering staff to deposit cash

41:49

in their names so that his income

41:51

remained undetected.

41:53

He also instructed staff to deposit

41:56

cash amounts under $10,000 so as not to attract

41:59

detention from the IRS.

42:02

Greg used his cult of personality

42:04

to convince people to work for him for

42:07

free, to convince them that they

42:09

were part of a greater purpose and

42:11

to control them for his own benefit.

42:15

All of the yoga to the People Studios shut

42:17

down in 2020 never to

42:19

reopen.

42:21

When Jill received the news about Greg's

42:23

arrest, she felt vindicated.

42:26

My girlfriend sent me the press release

42:28

from the Department of Justice, and

42:31

I just jumped up and down elatedly,

42:34

screaming, like crying.

42:36

I'm getting chills thinking about it. I just

42:38

felt validated

42:40

and, like, also not

42:43

completely safe, but just

42:45

validated. Greg Amusio

42:47

is currently being monitored from his home

42:49

in Washington state. He is restricted

42:52

to Washington, Oregon, and the state of

42:54

New York, where he awaits

42:56

his trial. He

42:59

is a

43:15

The Opportunist is a cast original

43:17

podcast. It's produced by me,

43:19

Hannah Smith, along with Natalie Gregory

43:22

and Sarah Douglas. Colin Thompson

43:24

is our executive producer. Anton

43:26

Doty is our editor and music editor.

43:28

The show is mixed and mastered by Matt Sewell.

43:31

The Opportunist's show cover art is by Joel

43:33

Hasselmeyer. Our theme song

43:35

is Waltz for Zechariah from the album Show

43:38

Late. Do you have a suggestion for the show

43:40

and Opportunist