(Editor’s Note: I lived in Los Angeles nearly all of the 90s well into the 2000s. I took classes personally from Bikram just five minutes from my home. He has sexually assaulted countless women.)
Infamous international yoga guru Bikram Choudhury’s passport has been seized in Mexico, and his luxury car collection is heading for the auction block.
Choudhury, 76, is currently on the run from creditors, trapped in Mexico where his debt is only growing, as he hides from an arrest warrant.
According to reports, Bikram, whose international Bikram Yoga empire is headquartered in West Los Angeles, had his passport seized in Mexico, where he failed to pay a $180,000 bill at the Princess Mundo Imperial Hotel. He was also accused of using his trademark name to sell his teacher training sessions at the hotel, which violates court orders.
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Bikram’s attorney stated that his client’s passport was seized about a month ago. Bikram and his attorney are in the process of collecting the funds necessary to pay off the hotel bill.
Hot on his trail is Micki Jafa-Bodden, the woman who brought him down. Jafa-Bodden, who is the guru’s former attorney, won a $6.6 million sexual harassment and wrongful termination lawsuit. Now, four years after the court judgment, Jafa-Bodden is honing in on Bikram’s hidden assets.
Jafa-Bodden told the court about a series of students who complained of sexual assaults. Six women have sued and settled out of court. Jaffa-Bodden said:
“That’s a level of taunting as well… that’s like the continuation of the type of behavior that he used to level at me where — nobody can do anything to me I’m untouchable.”1
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Recently, the U.S. Department of Justice appointed a trustee to help track down Bikram’s assets, including his treasured luxury cars. To Jafa-Bodden, this development is a game changer.
Jafa-Bodden’s investigators uncovered a fleet of twenty-two cars owned by Bikram that had been secretly transported from Van Nuys, California to a warehouse in Miami. The trustee, Robbin Itkin of DLA Piper in Los Angeles, arranged for the luxury cars to be sold at auction by RM Sotheby’s in Palm Beach, Florida, next month.
The impressive collection includes a dozen Rolls-Royces, five Bentleys and a rare 1969 Murena 429 GT. Jafa-Bodden said those 22 cars represent only half of Bikram’s fleet. The rest of the vehicles are still missing. Still, Jafa-Bodden said, it has given her a level of satisfaction, adding:
“Bikram loved those cars. Those are his… that’s his passion really. I am sure it’s been soul destroying for him.”
“I believe that Bikram is really at the end of his rope now. He will just run out of places to hide.”1
The sale of the vehicles could bring in more than $1 million, a fraction of what Bikram owes multiple creditors, including Jafa-Bodden.
