Placido Domingo was “apparently a client” of sexual services offered by the Yoga School of Buenos Aires, a cult with more than 30 years of history that was dismantled by the Argentine judiciary last week, according to the investigation’s sources in this diary . In a series of wiretaps ordered by Judge Ariel Lijo, the lead investigator, a client is being heard and, according to the investigation, it would be the tenor. The man talks to a woman who calls herself Mendy and tells her how the meeting should go. The woman later talks to the leader of the sect and celebrates that the client, allegedly Domingo, has already “organized the Matufia”. [un engaño] so that “the agents don’t notice”. The same sources consulted assure that the voice is that of the tenor and that Plácido Domingo has not been charged with any crime, but they warn that “a huge amount of paper and digital documentation is still being reviewed”. This newspaper has attempted to contact Domingo directly and through his entourage, with no response.
The phone dialogue, the date of which is unknown – Domingo performed at the Teatro Colón in the Argentine capital last April – was leaked on Tuesday afternoon and consists of three parts. In the first, Mendy and Juan Percowicz, the leader of the sect who was arrested last Friday along with twenty other people, decide to accept the request of the man who made the call. “Plácido said that he could visit us, that means he will come to visit me. Because he’s driving home to New York and he remembered it yesterday,” says the woman in the audios, which are in the court record. Because of the importance of the meeting, Percowicz approved the use of the museum, as they called a building conditioned for sexual encounters in central Buenos Aires. In a second audio, the alleged voice of Plácido Domingo can be heard giving instructions to Mendy. “If we leave dinner, we come separately, we do it this way because when I go up, my agents go into the room and they will stay on the same floor,” says the man pointed to by the investigation, Plácido Domingo, den He proceeds to give the woman the number of the room where they should meet. The deal is closed, Mendy calls the boss back. “He’s already called me and made a ruckus so I could stay at the hotel without the agents noticing,” he tells Percowicz. “How degenerate you are,” celebrates his interlocutor.
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Plácido Domingo was one of the artists highlighted in the #Metoo after about twenty women published allegations of sexual harassment in the United States by the Associated Press in August 2019. Many of his presentations, both in the United States and in Spain, have been cancelled. He denied the allegations, but reports from the American Union of Musical Artists and the Los Angeles Opera – of which the Madrid native became director in 2003, a position he resigned in the wake of the scandal – concluded the testimonies were “credible”. and that the tenor committed “inappropriate conduct”. He then assured that he was sorry that he might have caused the women pain. He was never tried, charged or convicted of the allegations, and he resumed his actions in 2021.
A cult hiding a prostitution plot
The Argentine judiciary arrested 24 members of the Buenos Aires Yoga School in 50 raids last Friday, including Percowicz, an 84-year-old former notary public, its director and founder. The group is accused of integrating a cult dedicated to recruiting and subjugating hundreds of people. The victims, eager to achieve “the development of happiness,” were allegedly robbed of their wealth, subjected to servitude, and even prostituted.
The women captured by the cult agreed to offer sexual services to wealthy businessmen, artists and even politicians, according to the investigation. In exchange, they received points for climbing a ladder set up by the leader. At the top of the pyramid was Percowicz, who called himself “the angel” or “the teacher”. The leader was level seven of the organization, delegated from “Apostles” (level six), “Geniuses” (level five) and “Students”, level four. The lower levels were left to “normal people”. According to the accusation, the members at the highest levels were responsible for various ventures that gave life and, more importantly, resources to the organization.
Money and other items confiscated from the sect in Buenos Aires, Argentina ARGENTINA FEDERAL POLICE – TÉLAM
Aside from the “geishado,” as the sexual solicitation service was called, there was a well-oiled resource-gathering machinery. The “students” gave up their fortune and paid fees ranging from $250 to $10.00 a month, depending on their purchasing power. Percowicz is an old acquaintance of the Argentine judiciary. In 1993 he was charged with the same crimes that have landed him in prison now, but he got off clean. His file went through three courts thanks to the connections the chairman had with local politicians and international human rights organizations. The allegations against the yoga school ultimately came to nothing. Almost 30 years later, Percowicz and his accomplices have been tried again.
At the time of his arrest, he was in possession of more than a million dollars and almost a kilo of gold bullion. The band’s members are split between Argentina and the United States. According to a police report, “The profits made from the exploitation of all these people — students and patients — would enter the legal circuit through real estate agents and a notary’s office that the organization has in our country and various foundations set up in the United States, creating a constant.” Foreign exchange flow is generated for this organization”.
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