An Argentina-based yoga group exploited sexually vulnerable women it called “geishas” to get money and influence from rich and powerful men around the world, including opera star Placido Domingo, who had known the organization’s leaders for more than two decades, according to interviews with former members and local authorities. An extensive investigation into the cult-like Buenos Aires Yoga School, which operated for more than 30 years in Argentina’s capital, has uncovered what authorities call a criminal organization involved in sex trafficking, money laundering, involuntary servitude, illegal exercise medicine and other crimes. . Nineteen members have been arrested as part of the investigation, which is reaching the US, where six other suspects are being sought. Despite its name, the school did not offer yoga classes. The leaders are accused of luring people to join its ranks with promises of eternal happiness and then exploiting them sexually and financially, according to charging documents. Former school members and officials investigating the case told The Associated Press that the group forced female members to work as “geishas” tasked with making visitors feel welcome at the school, with sex part of the expectation. The influential or wealthy men were matched with members of the “Geishado VIP,” one of several groups of women forced to have sex in exchange for money and influence that benefited the sect’s leaders, according to charging documents. Some of the women were sent to the United States and Uruguay to have sex with men, a practice that amounted to slavery, authorities said. Former member Pablo Salum said his mother and sister were among the women exploited in Argentina and described orgies and child sexual abuse. “When you got to 11 or 12 years old, the leader told you who you had to have sex with,” he said, adding that younger children were made to watch the sexual activity. Shaloum says his mother brought him into the organization at age eight and left him at 14. His allegations helped spark the current investigation. Some members of the group were reduced to a “state of slavery,” forced to have sex and assigned menial jobs at the school such as cleaning and cooking, according to investigative documents and a police officer. The male and female “slaves” had to follow instructions without asking questions, said a former member named Carlos, who asked to be identified only by his first name because he left the group years ago and could not confirm details from the current research. Domingo was embroiled in the scandal after police carried out dozens of raids in Buenos Aires in August targeting the school. The famous tenor was a “consumer of prostitution” but is not charged with a crime because prostitution is legal in Argentina, said an Argentine law enforcement source who, like other police and judicial sources in Buenos Aires, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity. because the investigation is ongoing. Authorities released wiretaps from earlier this year in which a man they identified as Domingo appears to arrange a sexual encounter at his hotel in April in Buenos Aires with Susana Mendelievich, a concert pianist who prosecutors say was the leader of sect responsible for “Geishado VIP.” In one of the wiretaps, Mendelievich talks to another cult leader about how the group tried unsuccessfully for years to use his musical connections to recruit Domingo to the group, but it was worth trying again while in Buenos Aires in April for a series of concerts. In another wiretap, Mendelievich asks cult leader Juan Percowicz if he can take Domingo to “the museum,” the nickname used to refer to the top floor of their 10-story building, where influential men had sex with group members. Mendelievich, 75, and Percowicz, 84, were arrested in the raids in August. both were released this week under house arrest. Domingo publicly sought to distance himself from the group, which reportedly had several offices in the United States. “Of course, I have nothing to do with it,” Domingo, 81, said last week of the organization’s alleged illegal activities. In comments to a television station in Mexico, where he was appearing, Domingo did not deny being the man in the wiretaps, but said he felt betrayed by musicians he considered friends. “It makes me sad when you’ve had friends for years and realize you’ve been used.” Domingo has not responded to multiple requests through his representatives for an interview or comment from the AP. In 2019, several women told the AP they were sexually harassed by Domingo, considered one of the greatest opera singers of all time. More than 20 women have accused Domingo of inappropriate and sexually charged behavior that included groping and other unwanted touching, persistent late-night phone calls, stalking them in dressing rooms and pressuring them into sexual relationships offering advancement in the opera world. Many of the women said he punished them professionally when they refused his advances. The Spanish opera singer denied wrongdoing at the time and said it pained him to think he made women uncomfortable. Investigations by the American Guild of Musical Artists and the Los Angeles Opera, where Domingo had served as general manager, found the allegations of sexual harassment against him to be credible. The allegations and subsequent findings halted Domingo’s career in the United States, although he continues to perform in other parts of the world. The revelations from Argentina have once again brought unwanted attention to the opera star. A concert promoter in neighboring Chile announced last week that a Domingo concert scheduled for Oct. 16 at an arena in the capital, Santiago, had been canceled, though the band said it was due to logistical reasons. Authorities have not released the names of other powerful men they say the group allegedly targeted. But investigators say they are looking at hard drives and “boxes and boxes” of erotic photos and videos seized in the raids. Judicial officials say many sexual encounters arranged by the group took place at her school in Buenos Aires and were videotaped. Carlos told the AP that he saw Domingo visit the school several times in the 1990s, including once as the guest of honor at an in-school dinner. Carlos said he was a waiter at the party, held in Domingo’s honor, where the singer made a generous offer at the end of the night to fly several of the group’s leaders to Europe with him on an upcoming trip. “At dinner Placido Domingo said ‘let’s all go to Europe,’” said Carlos, who left the group after 10 years in 1999. “He was inviting everyone, the whole table, to Europe.” At Domingo’s table were classical musicians who police say were part of the group’s leadership: Ruben D’Artagnan Gonzalez, Veronica Iacono and Mendelievich among others, according to Carlos who said it was common knowledge at school that the three accompanied Domingo on his journey. Gonzalez, who died in 2018, served as concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 1986 to 1996 and is accused of playing a key role in the band’s US 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 stage name Mariano Krauz. The extent of Domingo’s professional or personal ties to the group’s musicians is not known, and he declined to comment on it. But Domingo has appeared with many of the people who have been arrested, including at a 1996 concert featuring the three he allegedly invited to Europe and Krawczyk. During this Buenos Aires concert, Domingo and Iacono sang a part of “Marked Cards,” an opera co-written by Iacono, Mendelievich, Gonzalez and Krawczyk based on a book by Percowicz, the founder and leader of the Yoga School of Buenos Aires. The sexual encounters were advertised to members as a form of “therapy” and offered a route up the seven levels of the school’s strict hierarchy that had Percowicz at the top, according to charging documents. Former members interviewed by the AP say Percowicz was known as “El Maestro.” Others ranked in the seventh level were Iacono, Krawczyk and Mendelievich, according to prosecutors’ documents. A judicial source says he has seen documents showing Gonzalez was at the top level of the organization before he died. Krawczyk was among those arrested. To move quickly, members could also donate money and sign over assets. The group had revenues of about half a million dollars a month, according to a court official. Cult members included lawyers and accountants who advised leaders of a complex money-laundering network that included setting up businesses and buying real estate in Argentina and the United States, investigative documents said. Members also allegedly sold medical treatments for various illnesses, including AIDS and drug addiction, which included “sleep cures,” which essentially meant giving people drugs to help them sleep for days at a time. Authorities say the bogus treatments also took place in the United States, where the CMI Abasto Group clinic had subsidiaries. The Morning Update and Afternoon Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.
