false imprisonment, discrimination, and harassment. One suit describes a cult-like atmosphere where members of Choudhury's inner circle help him find young women to assault. Another suit claims that Choudhury recruits volunteers from overseas who are "so in fear of defendant Bikram Choudhury's wrath that they will travel to the US and risk violating immigration laws in order to serve him." In 2016, Choudhury was ordered to pay a $6.5 million judgment for similar charges. Minakshi Jafa-Bodden served as Head of Legal and International Affairs from Spring 2011 to March 13, 2013, when she was "abruptly and unlawfully terminated". During the two years that Jafa-Bodden worked closely with Choudhury, she was both the victim of and witness to Choudhury's "severe, ongoing, pervasive and offensive conduct" toward women, homosexuals, African Americans and other minorities. Bikram Yoga teacher Sarah Baughn filed a sexual harassment suit in March, just before Jafa-Bodden was fired. On January 25, 2016, a jury awarded Jafa-Bodden $924,500 against Choudhury in actual damages, finding that Choudhury acted with malice, oppression and fraud. On January 26, 2016, the jury awarded Jafa-Bodden an additional $6.4 million in punitive damages. Life after leaving the United States In May 2016, Choudhury returned to India where he began opening yoga studios. In October 2016, Choudhury's attorney stated that his client would not return to the United States to defend himself in person at the other pending court cases. In a late 2016 interview on Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Bikram responded to the accusations by asking, "Why would I have to harass women? People spend one million dollars for a drop of my sperm", and calling his accusers "trash" and "psychopaths". In May 2017, a Los Angeles judge issued a warrant for Choudhury's arrest, on the grounds that he had fled the country without paying any of the $7 million owed to Jafa-Bodden in compensation and punitive damages. The New York Daily News reported that luxury vehicles and other items of Choudhury's had been moved out of state, and that a court order preventing him from moving any of his other possessions out of warehouses in Florida and Nevada had been issued. Despite Choudhury's departure in disgrace, people continued to attend his teacher trainings, such as in Murcia, Spain and Acapulco, Mexico in 2019. The yoga teacher Jessamyn Stanley called it "bizarre" that people would still take his trainings after all the rape allegations against