NEW YORK — A prosecutor argued Wednesday that an international yoga business founder arrested on tax charges has a history of arrests and is a flight risk and a danger to potential witnesses in the case against him, but a judge disagreed with a request for limited man to his Washington. in home.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer E. Willis set Gregory Gumucio’s bond at $250,000 and barred him from associating with those he once employed at Yoga to the People.
The business had operated 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 had also operated in Spain and Israel and was looking to expand to other countries when it closed two years ago.
Gumucio was arrested last week on charges that he failed to pay taxes for more than a decade while running an international yoga company that generated over $20 million in revenue.
Assistant US Attorney Michael D. Neff sought to increase the bail conditions originally set in Washington when Gumucio was arrested last week, along with two others, including his romantic partner.
Neff wanted Gumucio to be placed under house arrest and location monitoring, and he asked for a $1 million bond, saying the evidence was overwhelming and Gumucio would eventually likely spend years in prison.
He said Gumucio, 61, of Cathlamet, Washington, has been arrested 15 times and in the past has used at least six aliases, three Social Security numbers and been given three places of birth. And Neff said Gumucio has been arrested three times on fleeing or eluding charges, though he did not say whether any of the arrests resulted in convictions.
He also said his mentor was a fugitive living in Mexico and that he was also associated with a former member of organized crime who used to lurk around his business. And he said two former business associates had described threatening encounters with him that left them scared after they left his company.
Rejecting some of the prosecutor’s requests, the judge noted that Gumucio’s last arrest before the new charges was in 1992, though she also said the bail conditions should be stricter than those imposed in Washington.
She ordered Gumucio to stay 60 miles (97 kilometers) from the Canadian border and also to stay away from any airports.
Defense attorney Marne Lenox had asked for a $100,000 bond, rejecting prosecutors’ claims that Gumucio has extensive ties abroad and generally portraying Neff’s claims as overblown.
Neff had requested that Gumucio be prohibited from having any firearms or explosives. “This is, frankly, overkill,” Lenox said.
She said he was a family man who was close to his three children.
