Investigations
Silmark accountant said Ideal Living wired $10M for guru bond
Ideal Living fired whistleblower Myra one day after she reported Peter Spiegel to human resources.
In Los Angeles, a former Silmark accounting employee told whistleblowers that Peter Spiegel's company wired $10 million to a Texas county for the bond of guru Prakashanand Saraswati. YouTuber Reckless Ben reported the case in a documentary he posted on Aug. 29, 2026.
Ideal Living sells Air Doctor and AquaTru purifiers from offices on Ventura Boulevard. Chief executive Peter Spiegel and co-chief executive Katie Williams built the brands into a business that a former senior brand manager said cleared more than $200 million. Former employees said the same executives funded Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, a religious organization whose leaders face child molestation allegations spanning decades.
Saraswati co-founded the group and helped create the Miracle Blade infomercial knife at Silmark, an earlier Spiegel company. A Texas jury convicted him on 20 counts of child molestation in March 2011 and set a 280-year sentence, but he skipped sentencing and remains on Interpol's public Red Notice list. U.S. marshals called his disappearance among the most sophisticated escapes they had handled.
The accounting employee worked on the team that handled Saraswati's trial finances. He told the whistleblowers on a Los Angeles street that Silmark, not a private donor, sent the bond money. Spiegel served as treasurer of the broader organization, and former members said company accounts and cult accounts drew from the same pool.
A former Silmark head of operations said on camera that Peter's assistant ordered an electric wheelchair shipped from Van Nuys to India weeks before sentencing. In his view, leaders knew Saraswati would flee. The night before the hearing, Spiegel joined Saraswati for dinner at supporter Marsha Kent's Austin home while sitting in the trial's front row daily.
Joe Kelly, an early follower who now helps people leave cults, said Saraswati summoned Peter and Katie to his bedroom and pressed followers to build businesses to fund the group. Karen Johnson, who spent 16 years inside, wrote in a HarperCollins India book that Spiegel and Williams built a Texas ashram with bedrooms where the swamis abused children.
An anonymous whistleblower who used the alias cockroach octopus began digging after a senior brand manager named Myra described a stolen urn of ashes from Spiegel's safe. Austin American-Statesman reporter Eric Dexheimer's archived articles on Bishop Accountability traced how the group was funded. Indian high court filings named Kripalu in rape and kidnapping cases that reached the Supreme Court before the Bombay High Court dismissed them.
Myra emailed Ideal Living human resources on Feb. 8, 2023, linking Spiegel to the cult and news coverage. She received a termination email before the next business day. Human resources director Carlton Newsom left a voicemail confirming the firing on Feb. 9.
Myra told Spiegel in a scheduled meeting that she knew about Saraswati, Kripalu, and the organization's history. She said he tried to gaslight her. When her ally joined the meeting, Spiegel dismissed the warning.
Former members said the group changed names repeatedly, from International Society of Divine Love to JKP Barsana Dham, Radha Madhav Dham, and Radha Krishna Dham. A trust appeared on March 3, 2011, one day before Saraswati's conviction. Myra said the Los Angeles Times, Daily Beast, and Newsweek stopped responding after months of work.
When earlier reporting stalled, Ideal Living sued an anonymous source for extortion. The documentary team sent an operative inside a new Los Angeles ashram Spiegel opened while newsrooms shed staff. Spiegel and Williams still run Ideal Living from Ventura Boulevard.
Source video: The company funding the world's largest human trafficking ring (FULL DOCUMENTARY)