Creditors closing in on ‘hot yoga’ guru Bikram Choudhury’s cars
Half of Bikram Choudhury’s luxury car collection has finally been chased down — and it’s ready for the auction block.
Authorities have seized nearly two dozen vintage automobiles owned by the disgraced yoga master, capping a three-year pursuit by creditors including women who have sued him for sexual harassment, The Post has learned.
The pervy guru — who lured stars like Madonna, George Clooney and David Beckham to his “hot yoga” classes, only to flee the country amid a slew of rape and sexual assault allegations from former students — had stashed the 22 cars in a Miami warehouse in 2016 to keep them out of at least one of his alleged victims’ hands, court documents say.
But in December, Miami police quietly seized Choudhury’s fleet, law-enforcement officials confirmed to The Post. Among the pricey rides are a 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III — the same model that appeared in the 1964 James Bond flick “Goldfinger,” and that was used by its namesake villain to smuggle gold.
The eye-popping collection boasts a dozen Rolls-Royces in all, as well as five Bentleys, a 1966 Jaguar M10, a 1971 Pontiac Lemans, a 1969 Murano, a specially constructed Ford GT40 and a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1, court records show.
The rest of the collection, which includes three Ferraris and six Mercedes-Benzes, is allegedly still at large.
The seized vehicles — whose “hypothetical” sales value could range from $800,000 to $1.5 million — are set to be auctioned off March 20 and March 21 at Palm Beach International Raceway, paving the way for some of Choudhury’s alleged victims to get paid, court records show.
Nevertheless, the women — including Minakshi Jafa-Bodden, an Oxford-educated lawyer who won $6.6 million from a wrongful termination suit against Choudhury — are only likely to get a small fraction of what they’re owed.
“The projected revenue generated from the car sales will nowhere be enough to satisfy the creditors,” Robbin Itkin, the trustee appointed to handle Choudhury’s corporate bankruptcy, said in a November complaint against him.
That’s partly because the bankrupt yogi has bent over backwards to hide the extensive car collection from creditors, according to court papers. The cars went missing after a Los Angeles jury ruled that Choudhury had illegally fired Jafa-Bodden after she started investigating his alleged sexual misconduct.
A few months after the verdict, Choudhury in December 2016 enlisted the help of a businessman known as “Elo” in spiriting at least 23 of his rides from Las Vegas to the Miami warehouse, court documents allege.
Less than a year later in November 2017 — facing some $16 million in legal judgments, mostly for his accusers — Choudhury filed for bankruptcy protection. Itkin was appointed as trustee the next year at the behest of the Justice Department, which cited Choudhury’s “gross mismanagement” of his own companies.
Itkin snapped up 22 of Choudhury’s cars at a Jan. 22 sheriff’s sale in Miami, a step that she said allowed her to avoid lengthy litigation to get them back. They’re now technically the property of Choudhury’s estates, but Itkin plans to sell them at auction.
The proceeds will be split among Jafa-Bodden, various creditors of Choudhury’s estates, and the owner of the warehouse where Choudhury stored the cars. After auction fees and other costs are covered, the first $350,000 will go to the Miami warehouse owner, East Florida Hauling, which says it’s owed more than $600,000 in unpaid storage bills, lawyers’ fees and other costs.
It’s unclear how much the auction will generate, but if the cars fetch $1.5 million, Jafa-Bodden would end up with just $320,775, minus Itkin’s lawyer fees related to the sale. East Florida Hauling would pocket $583,500 and the estates would get $595,725.
“Anything is better than nothing,” Itkin told The Post. “Anything we can do to try to give something back to the people who are owed money is better than the situation where we are now.”
A lawyer for Choudhury did not provide comment for this story.
Choudhury found international fame and fortune through his signature routine of 26 yoga poses performed over 90 minutes in stifling 105-degree heat. But his cult of personality also gave Bikram Yoga a seedy underbelly of sexual predation, his former staffers and students have alleged.
Jafa-Bodden and at least eight other women have accused Choudhury since 2013 of rape, sexual assault or harassment, allegations that got renewed attention last year with the release of the Netflix documentary “Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator.”
Choudhury has denied the accusations, saying he would not need to force himself on anyone because women line up to sleep with him. He has not faced criminal charges.
“Why I have to harass women? People spend $1 million for one drop of my sperm,” Choudhury said in a 2016 interview with HBO’s “Real Sports.”
One of Choudhury’s alleged sexual exploits even took place in a car. Petra Starke, a former Obama administration staffer who went to work for Choudhury in 2013, said in a lawsuit that she saw Choudhury demand a 23-year-old yoga instructor give him oral sex in a limousine from New York to Atlantic City.
It’s unclear from the complaint whether he owned that limo.