Jul 19, 2007 12:31 PM
Celebrity Fitness Trainer Faces Legal Troubles in Indiana
INDIANAPOLIS – Tracy Anderson, a fitness trainer to celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna, is the subject of an investigation in the state of Indiana.
Anderson has been accused of ripping off dozens of clients and a few landlords before she closed her studio in Fishers, IN, a suburb of Indianapolis, and relocated her business and equipment to Los Angeles, The Indianapolis Star reported.
Anderson closed her studio in Fishers in May. Customers of Anderson’s say she took thousands of dollars they paid for exercise sessions that they never received, according to the newspaper.
Anderson’s attorney, Jack Hittle, told The Star that he is offering customers 75 percent of customers’ claims and that the first few checks are in the mail.
A spokeswoman for the Indiana attorney general’s office told The Star that Anderson’s decision to close her Fishers studio with no notice and no refunds sparked a complaint under the Indiana’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act.
This isn’t Anderson’s first brush with legal trouble. The 32-year-old native of Noblesville, IN, opened two gyms (one of which folded) with rent deficits of $25,000 each, according to the newspaper. In 2005, judges awarded $450,000 to past landlords suing Anderson, who filed bankruptcy to escape the debts. Last year, Anderson faced a lawsuit by a former student who invested $100,000 as a partner in Tracy Anderson Studios. Anderson was arrested last December and jailed briefly after one judge tired of the delays in the efforts to collect $2,100 on two cases Anderson had lost.
Anderson’s publicist offered no comment to The Star on Tuesday, except to accuse former customers of “lies” and “slander” in their anonymous remarks to an Internet blog about Tracy Anderson Studios.
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