Authorities Thursday were hunting the “hot yoga” founder of Bikram Yoga after a judge issued an order for his arrest for failing to pay $6.47 million in an employment lawsuit involving a worker’s comments against harassment of women.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Edward Moreton issued the order and set bail at $8 million for Bikram Choudhury in the lawsuit brought by Minakshi Jafa-Bodden.
Choudhury, who has publicly shown off his collection of expensive cars and vehicles and other items of wealth, has allegedly ignored court orders to produce assets to the plaintiff in satisfaction of the January 2016 verdict.
That case was brought by former legal adviser Jafa-Bodden, and a jury found Choudhury wrongfully punished her for speaking out against harassment of women in the workplace.
Jafa-Bodden began working for Choudhury in March 2011 and said she initially received praise for her work. But she said that after she began investigating lawsuits against the company, including one by a black employee complaining of discrimination, she began to experience a backlash from Choudhury.
Jafa-Bodden, now 47, sued Choudhury and his West Los Angeles-based Yoga College of India in June 2013, alleging she was fired in retaliation for complaining about and investigating the harassment of women in his company.
Choudhury teaches the “hot yoga” technique in which sessions are conducted in temperatures that often are above 100 degrees. Video of his teaching shows Choudhury on a riser dressed only in a bathing suit instructing dozens of sweating students — also in brief, hot-weather clothing — in the Bikram Yoga technique.
Billboards for years around Los Angeles touted Bikram Yoga and showed the bathing-suit clad Choudhury in a twisted position presumably part of the Bikram Yoga technique.
The judge issued the arrest warrant Wednesday.
— Staff and wire reports