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Filla said that Armstrong had been frequenting yoga studios in the area and taking classes at them “to better her profession to teach a specific type of yoga.”
“She was getting really ready to establish that next part of her career,” he added.
Armstrong, who was partners with professional cyclist Colin Strickland in a vintage camper restoration company, was also a realtor and yoga teacher in Austin.
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An Argentina-based yoga group sexually exploited vulnerable women it called “geishas” to get money and influence from wealthy and powerful men around the world, including opera star Placido Domingo, who knew the organization’s leaders for more than two decades, according to interviews with former members and local authorities.
A sprawling investigation into the sect-like Buenos Aires Yoga School, which operated for over 30 years in Argentina’s capital, has uncovered what authorities are calling a criminal organization involved in sex trafficking, money laundering, involuntary servitude, illegal practice of medicine and other crimes. Nineteen members have been arrested in the investigation that reaches into the U.S., where six more suspects are sought.
Despite its name, the school did not offer yoga classes. Leaders are accused of preying on people to join its ranks with promises of eternal happiness and then exploiting them sexually and financially, according to charging documents.
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Sexual encounters were touted to members as a form of “healing” and offered a path to scaling the seven levels of the school’s strict hierarchy that had Percowicz at the top, according to charging documents.
Former members interviewed by AP say Percowicz was known as “El Maestro.” Others ranked at the seventh level were Iacono, Krawczyk and Mendelievich, according to prosecutors’ documents. A judicial source says she has seen documents that show González was at a top level of the organization before he died. Krawczyk was among those arrested.
To advance quickly, members could also donate money and sign over assets. The group had revenues of around half a million dollars per month, according to a judicial official.
Cult members included lawyers and accountants who advised leaders on a complex money laundering network that included starting businesses and buying real estate in Argentina and the United States, the investigative documents said.
medical treatments were also done in the United States, where the group’s clinic CMI Abasto, had subsidiaries.
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... of the House of Representatives that the Government of Argentina should provide an immediate and final resolution to the Buenos Aires Yoga School case.
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“At the dinner Placido Domingo said ‘let’s all go to Europe’,” said Carlos, who left the (Buenos Aires Yoga School) group after 10 years in 1999. “He was inviting them all, the whole table, to Europe.”
At Domingo’s table were classical musicians who police say were part of the group’s leadership: Rubén D’Artagnan González, Verónica Iacono and Mendelievich among others, according to Carlos who said it was common knowledge at the school that the three accompanied Domingo on his trip.
González, who died in 2018, served as concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1986 until 1996 and is accused of playing a key role in the group’s U.S. operations. Iacono was a New York-based soprano, who used the stage name “Loiacono,” and is the subject of an international arrest warrant. Another alleged leader named Mariano Krawczyk, was an oboist who goes by the artistic name Mariano Krauz.