Detectives, ASIC investigate and members protest as luxury fitness studio Embody folds and reopens

Detectives are investigating allegations of fraud after the founder of a company behind a “luxury, holistic fitness studio” announced plans to reopen just three weeks after shutting up shop and leaving investors hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Scott Capelin drives a convertible BMW.

Detectives are investigating allegations of fraud after the founder of a company behind a “luxury, holistic fitness studio” announced plans to reopen just three weeks after shutting up shop and leaving investors hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

Scott Capelin has written to the old members of the Embody “fitness and wellness studio” on Military Rd, Neutral Bay, to tell them another company is reopening the business on Monday and looking for new investors.

Scott Capelin outside his home in Gymea Bay.

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“That’s unbelievable,” said sacked trainer Gareth Martin, 25, who invested and lost $25,000. “It’s the same building and the same name. Most members feel it is an insult to their intelligence.”

The move by convertible BMW-driving Mr Capelin, 42, has outraged the studio’s well-heeled north shore members, who are preparing to protest outside the gym when it reopens its doors.

They have set up a protest group called Dis-embodied and are taking classes with the trainers Capelin sacked in local parks rather than go back to the luxury studio.

One member posted an email she had sent to Mr Capelin saying: “I am bitterly disappointed with the way things have transpired over the past months … I imagine you will find most members will feel the same way as I do.”

Embody closed in December, with trainers losing their jobs and many investors losing money. Picture: Instagram@embodyaustralia

Mr Capelin, who regularly poses grinning and bare chested on social media, says on Instagram his passions are “business, health, helping others”. But the affairs of his company are being referred to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission after investors claimed the only person he helped was himself.

The Daily Telegraph has seen paperwork showing Mr Capelin using money from the studio to fund his Embody Empire International company, which has plans to build a studio in Amsterdam.

A NSW Police spokesman confirmed, “Detectives from the North Shore Police area command are investigating the allegations.”

Personal trainer Tim Heasman, with his fiancee Ellie Wilbraham, lost his investment in Embody. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Liquidator Guy Baxendale said: “We will be referring this to ASIC. It has a new phoenixing department and we will be asking them to look into this.”

Mr Capelin attracted a string of investors to his studio and four of his instructors were among those who pumped in money to the holding company called Caprahame.

Personal trainer Tim Heasman, 28, said he had looked up to Mr Capelin as a “mentor I really trusted” when he started working at Embody.

When Mr Heasman’s father died, Mr Capelin invited him to invest his $150,000 inheritance into the company.

Mr Heasman and partner Ellie Wilbraham are getting married on Saturday with a financial cloud hanging over them after Mr Capelin voluntarily liquidated the company.

All the instructors at Embody were called into one of the studios on December 12 by Mr Capelin and handed their termination notices.

Scott Capelin, pictured at the gym, told the liquidator the company had almost $4 million in debts. Picture: Instagram@embodyaustralia

Mr Capelin told the liquidator the company had almost $4 million in debts, including over $400,000 owed to himself. Another company called Nilepac, Capelin’s name spelled backwards, was owed $1.4 million.

As the liquidator Mr Baxendale worked to try and salvage the company he was told that it was being evicted from the premises, even though it had paid the rent, by the holding company — Nilepac.

Investor Tim Cox, who has lost $500,000, said: “There was no written lease between the liquidated company and Nilepac. Essentially Nilepac was getting the expensive fit out of the gym for free.”

Mr Capelin stepped away from Nilepac in June, handing over the reins to his close friend, business coach Matt Malouf.

The business remains registered to Mr Capelin’s mother’s address in Miranda in Sydney’s south. Mr Malouf is not part of either the ASIC or police investigations.

Mr Capelin and Mr Malouf did not respond to requests for comment.