In this Sept. 27, 2003, file photo, Bikram Choudhury, front, founder of the Yoga College of India and creator and producer of Yoga Expo 2003, leads what organizers hope will be the world's largest yoga class at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

An internationally renowned business mogul, in an attempt to hide his assets from the law, moves 20 of his 43 vehicles from Los Angeles to Seattle and later to Miami. Only by a court order is he stopped from shipping the expensive cars out of the country and transferring titles to his “sham” company in Hong Kong.

He owes his former attorney millions of dollars, and as of press time, there is a warrant out for his arrest with bail set at $8 million—but he is nowhere to be found.

It might sound like the plot of an action movie, but it's been real life for Bikram Choudhury, founder of Bikram Yoga, the international chain of yoga studios that popularized “hot yoga.”

The chase has forced his former legal adviser Minakshi “Micki” Jafa-Bodden to spend nearly two years trying to collect the millions of dollars in damages she's owed by her former boss.

In February, a California court appointed Jafa-Bodden a post-judgment receiver and granted her ownership of Bikram Yoga and its affiliated businesses' intellectual property rights, although she claims she has “not seen a dime” from the business. So she's tried to be made whole by recovering Choudhury's very expensive possessions—cars and even a Franck Muller watch possibly worth $2 million to $3 million.

At times, attorneys working within companies decline to push back against their employers. Not Jafa-Bodden—for the past four years, she's been entangled in a legal battle, prompted by misconduct her boss allegedly perpetrated against her as well as other women.

The fight has caused her to suffer from anxiety and even fear for her life at times. But today, she says she would do it all over again. Her goal all along was to stand up to the “brazen” yoga guru who, in her opinion, “thinks he is above the law.”

Dream Job to 'Dystopian'

In early 2011, Jafa-Bodden thought she had landed her dream job. Choudhury, whose attorney declined an interview for this article, extended her an offer letter to become head of international and legal affairs of Bikram Yoga, a position that would bring her from her home in India to Los Angeles.

When Jafa-Bodden first joined Bikram, she was tasked with resolving litigation involving Marriott Hotel Services Inc., which claimed the yoga company had unsettled bills for teacher trainings that took place at the hotels.

At first, Jafa-Bodden felt confident about her new role with Bikram Yoga as she saw that major venture capitalists like Colony Capital were pouring millions of dollars into the company. When she first started, the contested payments for Marriott were “the only red flag, if there was one.” But Jafa-Bodden's in-house experience quickly turned into something much different than she had experienced in her previous roles as a British solicitor and a licensed attorney in India, as lawsuits began to pile up from women involved in Bikram Yoga claiming that Choudhury had harmed them. Claims included sexual harassment, gender discrimination and sexual assault.

“It was very dystopian, like being in a parallel universe where you're trying to hold down what looks like a regular corporate in-house job, but it's not,” says Jafa-Bodden, who says Choudhury mistreated her in various ways, including by pressuring her to buy a home in Hawaii for his mistress and to conduct a smear campaign against a yoga studio owner with whom he was involved in litigation.

In addition to investigating the claims of women who said they were harassed or assaulted, Jafa-Bodden pushed back after assuming all of terminated CEO Mark Sacks' responsibilities with no additional compensation. When some of the yoga studios reportedly reached unsafe temperatures, Jafa-Bodden again raised concerns.

Jafa-Bodden ultimately was given the choice to resign or be fired in March 2013. During the meeting where she was dismissed, she says she was accused of having improper sexual relations with an attorney acting as outside counsel for the company. She says she was told that if she did not resign immediately, it “would be very bad for her.”

The Case Against Choudhury

“From almost the beginning of her employment, [Jafa-Bodden] was subject to severe, ongoing, pervasive and offensive conduct by [Choudhury],” her 2013 harassment, discrimination and wrongful termination complaint reads.

Two-and-a-half years after filing suit, Jafa-Bodden claimed during trial in Los Angeles Superior Court that she was terminated for investigating claims of rape and sexual harassment made against the yoga guru. And her claims that Choudhury “repeatedly” referred to women and female employees as “bitches, fucking bitches, fat bitches and stupid bitches” were heard.

The California jury ultimately awarded her $6.4 million in punitive damages and $924,500 in compensatory damages in January 2016.

Witnesses testified that Choudhury made it a habit in the workplace of “demanding that female staffers brush his hair and give him massages.”

Jafa-Bodden was frequently required to “conduct business meetings … while he was receiving such massages,” according to the complaint she filed against her former employer in June 2013. The complaint said she was asked to meet her boss “in his hotel room typically at night … During one such meeting Bikram Choudhury climbed into bed, and patted the bedspread next to him,” inviting Jafa-Bodden to join him.

Choudhury could not be reached for comment, and his attorney Nick Pujji, partner at Dentons, said he was “not authorized” to comment, but pointed to the defendant's court filings.

In a 2015 interview with CNN, Choudhury rebutted women's claims about him. “Women like me, women [love] me,” he told CNN. “I don't have to assault the women.”

He went on to say, “I feel sorry for them … It's not [them] who are saying that. They are influenced by somebody … lawyers.”

It's unclear how seriously Choudhury took the allegations, since one witness during Jafa-Bodden's trial testified that she once heard him tell a training class: “Look how many people are here … I should rape more girls. It's good for business.”

Since being ordered to pay Jafa-Bodden, Choudhury reportedly fled the country and his current location is unknown. But he was believed to have last been seen in Acapulco, Mexico, leading a teacher training.

'Micki's Courage'

Carla Minnard of the Minnard Law Firm in Los Angeles, one of Jafa-Bodden's attorneys, had previously represented Pandhora Williams, a former trainer for Bikram Yoga, one of Choudhury's accusers, who sued the guru in 2011 for sexual harassment and discrimination. Williams decided to settle the case the night before jury selection, according to Minnard. While Minnard believes the settlement was appropriate for Williams and her family, she found it “agonizing” the case didn't go to trial as she knew how “dangerous” Choudhury was. So, when Jafa-Bodden came along, Minnard let her know early on, “I can't represent you unless you agree to take this to and through verdict … All of this needs to be brought to light.”

Minnard admits, “It's caused an enormous amount of financial drain and energy drain and time drain on my firm. It has been worth every single piece of that.” She feels vindicated because “I feel like we've put a tiger in a smaller cage at least. Women are safer because of Micki's courage. There's no question that women in California are safer.”

Collecting Payments

For the past 22 months, since the California jury delivered its verdict, Jafa-Bodden and her attorneys have been laboring to collect the damages owed.

In May, Aaron Osten, another attorney for Jafa-Bodden, detailed how, for more than a year, the attorneys had tried to recover damages as Choudhury moved and hid assets. This was acknowledged by an appeals bench in California in August, which rejected Choudhury's attempt to appeal his case, based on the disentitlement doctrine, which forbids seeking relief from the judicial system after evading its authority. (Oral arguments in August were limited to Jafa-Bodden's motion to dismiss, not the merits of Choudhury's appeal in the case.)

On Aug. 24, the appellate court sided with Jafa-Bodden and dismissed the appeal, citing Choudhury's violation of court orders as well as his “willful disobedience and a pattern of obstructive tactics.” Pujji has since filed a motion requesting a rehearing for his client.

Minnard calls the decision a “big win” but promises she and Jafa-Bodden's two other attorneys at Greene, Broillet & Wheeler—Osten and Mark Quigley—are determined to collect damages. “If not, there will be no accountability and the jury's verdict—while it will still be an important moral victory and vindication of Micki's struggle—will not have the teeth sufficient to make an individual like Bikram understand that he cannot engage in this illegal, outrageous and vile conduct without paying the price.”

Jafa-Bodden has only been able to recover less than $125,000. In May, Minnard described how the legal team swept Choudhury's bank accounts to recover even that small sum, which went toward legal costs. Jafa-Bodden has not personally received any money from Bikram Yoga studios, and in a July interview, wasn't feeling terribly optimistic about getting what she is owed.

“I never went into this for the money. It was never about the financial outcome,” Jafa-Bodden says. “I also knew in the back of my head that whatever amount the jury ordered Bikram to pay, he would never willingly pay it. The lengths to which he's gone are extraordinary.”

But she does have bills piling up. A single parent, she also has her and her daughter's well-being to consider. She wavers on what she will do with the Bikram business but thinks she will sell it at auction and was preparing to do so at press time.

And she would like to return to practicing law. But that hasn't been easy.

But there is some hope on the horizon in the pursuit of Choudhury. Minnard said the warrant for Choudhury's arrest has reached the International Police Organization, and he could be in custody before the end of 2017.

Jafa-Bodden's case aside, the guru has settled a number of other civil cases where he was accused of sexual harassment or rape.“He's gagged a number of those victims who were brave enough to come forward,” Jafa-Bodden says. “But I'm not gagged, and I'm their voice. I continue to speak for them.”