Juan Percowicz was an accountant with an uncommon aspect pastime: educating self-help courses round Buenos Aires with a heavy dose of historical philosophy and New Age spiritualism. He was a success and, with donations from his followers, he constructed a company often known as Buenos Aires Yoga Faculty, or BAYS.
For greater than 30 years, he ran the college, which promised religious salvation via lectures and self-help courses.
However now, Mr. Percowicz, 85, and greater than a dozen BAYS members are going through prison expenses, accused of operating a “intercourse cult,” not a yoga college, that coerced a few of its feminine members into prostitution and laundered the earnings in actual property.
Prosecutors say the group exploited and drugged a few of its feminine members, forcing them to promote their our bodies and producing a whole bunch of 1000’s of {dollars} month-to-month from shoppers in Argentina and the US. BAYS additionally ran a bootleg clinic the place some members have been administered medication to induce extended sleep, generally as a type of punishment, in response to prosecutors.
“Cults exist right here, however we’ve by no means seen one which operated at this stage,” mentioned Ricardo Juri, the investigator who oversaw police raids on BAYS properties in August 2022.
The accusations in opposition to BAYS shocked Argentina, but for many individuals, in addition they felt eerily acquainted.
Within the Nineties, Mr. Percowicz and his college first gained notoriety after an Argentine household accused the group of brainwashing their daughter. Throughout the investigation, some former members talked of being pressured to work as “slaves” and mentioned the college promoted prostitution.
However that authentic case stalled within the courts. Argentina didn’t but have legal guidelines on human trafficking or cash laundering, in response to investigators. The nation’s justice system was nonetheless being overhauled after the top of the army dictatorship greater than a decade earlier through which tens of 1000’s of individuals have been killed.
A 1999 State Division report mentioned Argentina’s judiciary was “hampered by inordinate delays, procedural logjams, modifications of judges, insufficient administrative assist and incompetence.”
There additionally remained a lingering mistrust of presidency and the judicial system — and defenders of BAYS tapped into that, together with Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, an Argentine Nobel Peace Prize winner, and the Moms of the Plaza de Mayo, whose kids had been “disappeared” by the authoritarian regime. They accused the Argentine judiciary of corruption and human rights violations related to the case.
Finally, the case in opposition to BAYS was dropped.
Now, with up to date legal guidelines, prosecutors are once more concentrating on Mr. Percowicz and his followers in a brand new investigation inspecting BAYS operations relationship again to 2004.
“The persons are the identical, the selections are the identical, the actions are related, however there are two essential legal guidelines now with massive penalties that prohibit the core actions these folks have been doing,” mentioned Ariel Lijo, a choose who oversaw the preliminary levels of the case. Mr. Lijo was nominated for Argentina’s Supreme Court docket in March by President Javier Milei.
Within the 2022 raids on BAYS, investigators mentioned they discovered greater than $1 million in money, 5 bars of gold, stashes of pornographic movies, checkbooks from American banks and dossiers on rich people, together with some who dwell in the US. American authorities have cooperated within the investigation, in response to Argentine investigators.
The U.S. Justice Division declined to remark.
Prosecutors say that the seven ladies named as victims have been dropped at BAYS by their dad and mom after they have been minors, or that they joined as younger ladies and have been finally pressured into prostitution. However the ladies within the case have denied ever having intercourse in trade for cash, or being victims of any crime.
Protection legal professionals for Mr. Percowicz and present members of BAYS have denied all expenses, arguing that nobody within the group was exploited. As a substitute, they are saying that the accusers — whose identities are protected within the case — need revenge on the group for private causes.
“It is a case of human trafficking with out victims of trafficking,” mentioned Jorge Daniel Pirozzo, a lawyer who represents Mr. Percowicz and 5 different BAYS members. “It hasn’t been confirmed that anyone has been sexually exploited.”
Mr. Percowicz and BAYS members declined interview requests.
Whereas prostitution in Argentina will not be unlawful, selling or economically exploiting the apply of prostitution utilizing deception, abuse or intimidation is. The prosecutors say they intend to indicate that the victims don’t acknowledge themselves as such as a result of Mr. Percowicz and his allies psychologically manipulated the ladies over years.
As each side put together their arguments, the group continues to have outstanding allies, together with in the US.
In October 2022, the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. despatched an e-mail to Mr. Lijo, the choose, which was reviewed by The New York Occasions. The message mentioned that BAYS members have been “victims of brutal and egregious human rights violations by components of the Argentine authorized system.” It was unclear why Mr. Jackson, 82, despatched the e-mail.
He didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.
‘They Raised His Self-Esteem’
Caterina Sanfelice was a hairstylist in her forties when a buddy first invited her to a BAYS lecture round 1993. “It was like going to a elaborate café with an orator,” she mentioned.
Mr. Percowicz spoke of discovering inside energy, she recollects, hooking folks with guarantees of solutions within the subsequent session. Ms. Sanfelice mentioned she began going to the talks a minimum of as soon as per week along with her household.
Finally, she mentioned, it grew to become clear one thing was off. Ms. Sanfelice mentioned Mr. Percowicz advised her that “he felt like God.” His closest followers began calling him “angel” or “grasp.” Then, at a BAYS celebration, Ms. Sanfelice mentioned two ladies propositioned her husband whereas different members undressed to arrange for an orgy. She ran out of the constructing.
When Ms. Sanfelice advised her husband she didn’t wish to return, she mentioned, he replied that the college noticed in him what she didn’t see: a fantastic architect.
“They raised his vanity,” she mentioned. “That’s when he began to really feel vital. And I grew to become the witch.”
Ms. Sanfelice mentioned her husband, who couldn’t be reached for remark, left her in 1993 and stayed concerned with BAYS. She mentioned she was exasperated and felt like nobody believed her.
Then got here some validation: the primary prison case in opposition to BAYS, which captured worldwide consideration.
On the middle of it was Maria Valeria Llamas, who was 20 and jobless when a household buddy supplied to take her to a BAYS lecture in 1990.
“At first we noticed it as one thing constructive,” mentioned Martín Sommariva, Ms. Llamas’s half brother. “We went from a Valeria who didn’t exit, who was caught in her room the entire time, to this Valeria who received on the bus and had an curiosity in one thing.”
However over the subsequent few years, the yoga college consumed her life, her household mentioned. Ms. Llamas broke up along with her boyfriend and misplaced contact with mates. She stopped going to household outings. She started working at a pharmacy run by BAYS members.
Quickly after, her mom mentioned, she came upon Ms. Llamas had been pressured by the college to have an unlawful abortion. When her household questioned her, Ms. Llamas replied that Mr. Percowicz was “an immortal angel.”
The subsequent day, two BAYS members confirmed up on the home, escorted by cops, in response to the household and court docket data from the case. They mentioned they have been suing the dad and mom for “illegal deprivation of liberty.” The police moved Ms. Llamas’s belongings into an house owned by BAYS, her household mentioned. Ms. Llamas later accused her stepfather of sexually assaulting her, court docket data present.
“All of a sudden the world got here crashing down on us,” recalled her mom, Elena. “We thought: What are we going to do now?”
No rape expenses have been ever filed in opposition to the members of the family. Ms. Llamas didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The household filed a prison criticism in 1993, accusing the college of being a cult that had brainwashed their daughter.
The accusation ended up within the docket of Mariano Bergés, a younger choose beginning his profession. Below Argentina’s judiciary system on the time, judges may each examine circumstances and oversee the court docket proceedings. As a part of the investigation, Mr. Bergés mentioned in an interview, he licensed a raid of the headquarters and a few of BAYS’s different properties.
He mentioned the raids discovered packing containers of letters that confirmed members paying Mr. Percowicz for the next religious rating within the group. This was not unlawful, however, mixed with the testimony of former members, it led investigators to consider there was criminal activity underway. Mr. Bergés then ordered wiretaps on Mr. Percowicz and his high deputies, which Mr. Bergés mentioned indicated a scheme to steal the belongings of a deceased BAYS member.
In depositions reviewed by The Occasions, a number of former BAYS members later mentioned that Mr. Percowicz and his inside circle pressured youthful followers to be “slaves” to larger rating members, making them perform duties like house responsibilities with out pay. Former members additionally mentioned that the group promoted prostitution, the depositions present, although none mentioned they’d been prostituted themselves.
However with out human trafficking or cash laundering legal guidelines in Argentina, Mr. Bergés mentioned, he needed to construct a case round fraud, promotion of prostitution and a flimsy cost often known as “corruption of adults.”
In late 1995, Mr. Bergés withdrew from the case after being threatened with impeachment by Argentina’s Congress. In an interview, he mentioned the Congress and Supreme Court docket, in addition to human-rights teams, pressured him to step down, saying that his investigation ways, just like the wiretapping and raids, violated the suspects’ civil rights. He denies the accusations.
Exterior his home, he mentioned, “The partitions have been plastered with posters and issues in opposition to me.”
By the mid-Nineties, BAYS had opened wellness firms and a basis in Chicago, Las Vegas and New York. It had gained a popularity as an training middle for philosophy and wellness whose members included students, professionals and musicians.
BAYS had additionally cultivated supporters within the U.S. Congress, although it’s unclear how the lawmakers first grew to become conscious of the group or whether or not any of them had any actual data or connections to the group.
In Argentina, the prison case in opposition to the group continued to tug via the courts. Greater than 50 congressional members despatched letters to the nation’s authorities demanding the investigation be closed, in response to the Home report. (There isn’t any proof that any U.S. politicians have been members of BAYS or investigated by Argentine officers.)
Edolphus Cities, a congressman representing a part of Brooklyn, mentioned in Home testimony that BAYS members have been being harassed by Argentine judicial officers, had been unlawfully imprisoned and topic to antisemitism. Mr. Percowicz and a few of his high deputies are Jewish.
Mr. Cities, 89, retired in 2013 and didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Robert A. Underwood, a former congressman from Guam who signed a letter despatched to President Invoice Clinton calling for him to intervene, mentioned in an interview that such missives have been frequent. “No person actually places a number of thought into it since you are signing letters on a regular basis,” he mentioned.
Mr. Clinton, in his ultimate 12 months in workplace, responded to members of Congress in September 1999 and mentioned that U.S. Embassy officers in Buenos Aires had “not too long ago reiterated to senior Argentine officers the significance of resolving this case as shortly as attainable,” in response to a letter offered to The Occasions by the Clinton Presidential Library.
The White Home’s written response to Congress “displays the extent of President Clinton’s involvement on this,” mentioned Angel Ureña, a spokesman for Mr. Clinton.
In Argentina, the prison case in opposition to BAYS was finally closed within the early 2000s with no convictions.
Making an attempt to Make a Billion {Dollars}
Over the subsequent 20 years, BAYS flourished, with little consideration from Argentine authorities. Throughout this era, Mr. Percowicz made clear he was within the enterprise of making a living.
“If what we needed to do right here was write a ebook in regards to the lifetime of Jesus, we wouldn’t be serious about something aside from the lifetime of Jesus,” Mr. Percowicz advised his followers in 2006 in a video obtained by investigators. “However what we try to do right here is make a billion {dollars}, one billion {dollars}, goddamn it!”
Then, in 2021, BAYS bumped into new hassle.
Argentina’s federal public prosecutor’s workplace for trafficking and the exploitation of individuals opened an investigation into the group.
Investigators tapped the telephones of Mr. Percowicz and a few of his allies, capturing conversations that, in response to prosecutors, present the work of managing a prostitution operation.
Transcripts filed in court docket present that in a single name, Mr. Percowicz goes over the logistics of arranging what investigators say was a sexual encounter. In a separate recording, a BAYS supervisor tells Mr. Percowicz {that a} girl is bringing in solely $6,000 a month, which isn’t sufficient cash, suggesting she wants to herald extra for the group.
The wiretaps additionally recorded conversations with a person who prosecutors say is Plácido Domingo, one of many world’s most well-known opera singers, who has confronted quite a few accusations of sexual harassment lately. In a single name, he speaks to a girl who prosecutors say was a senior member of BAYS to debate how she may get to his Buenos Aires lodge room with out being seen.
Argentine prosecutors haven’t introduced expenses in opposition to Mr. Domingo in connection to the BAYS case.
A spokesperson for Mr. Domingo mentioned in a press release that the opera singer had not been charged “and he’s fully unrelated to the investigation.”
Prosecutors mentioned that almost all of BAYS’s earnings got here from sex-trafficking actions, and was then laundered into actual property in Argentina and the US, and so they estimated BAYS’s complete belongings at almost $50 million as of December 2020.
Prosecutors say they’re assured that the proof and new legal guidelines will allow them to deliver Mr. Percowicz and different defendants to justice. The case is presently working its manner via the courts. No trial date has been set but.
For Pablo Salum, whose mom first introduced him to BAYS when he was solely 8, justice is already too late. He left the group when he was 12 and has change into estranged from his mom and sister, who stay BAYS members.
“This might have ended 20 years in the past,” he mentioned. “Every little thing that’s occurring now wouldn’t have needed to occur. And I could even have recovered my household.”
Glenn Thrush contributed reporting from Washington.