A former client of Jodi Hildebrant is suing the Utah therapist and her business partner, 8 Passengers’ Ruby Franke, for fraud and racketeering connected to Hildebrant’s life coaching business, ConneXions Classroom. The two pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse in 2024 and were each sentenced to four to 30 years in prison, but the client claims that there are illegal aspects of ConneXions still thriving while Hildebrandt is behind bars. Representatives for Hildebrandt and Franke did not respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
In a lawsuit filed on Jan. 22, plaintiff Michael Robert Tilleman accuses Hildebrandt and Franke of using ConneXions to manipulate therapy clients into paying exorbitant fees for services, and isolating and alienating them from family and friends until they are under financial and emotional control. “Franke, Hildebrandt, and others known and unknown have been engaging in a widespread racketeering enterprise in pursuit of power and profit through the advertisement, sale, and provision of fraudulent services and products designed to prey on vulnerable individuals, and encourage victims to perpetuate illegal acts onto others,” the suit claims.
According to Tilleman, he and his then-wife Michal Washburn, née Savage, attended couples therapy with Hildebrandt in 2015. But after several sessions, according to the lawsuit, Hildebrandt told Savage that Tilleman needed to be brought into “the Truth,” an ideology that eventually led to the dissolution of their marriage and a custody battle for their child. Savage is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit. When reached for comment by Rolling Stone, Savage did not give a statement but sent a 2021 court filing on their joint custody agreement, which described a tumultuous marriage, and presented Tilleman as a hostile partner. She did not respond to further inquiries about her work with ConneXions or relationship with Jodi Hildebrandt.
According to Tilleman’s suit, after Savage and Tilleman began attending therapy with Hildebrandt, Hildebrandt claimed Tilleman was suffering from a pornography addiction, which he says in the suit never existed. He says that Hildebrandt’s suggested Savage tell Tilleman that she would divorce him unless he attended certain ConneXions classes and courses. When the two could not reconcile, he says, Savage refused to see any other therapist besides Hildebrandt. They filed for divorce and began a complicated custody battle over their daughter. Tilleman alleges that even while Hildebrandt has been in jail, multiple clients in ConneXions have kept her teaching going, including recruiting new members and allegedly physically abusing children.
“Hildebrandt’s methodology has led to the commission of countless crimes and torts by Hildebrandt and [ConneXions] members, all of which did not come to light until the arrests and subsequent sentencing of Hildebrandt and Franke in August 2023 and February 2024, Respectively,” the suit reads. “Once Franke and Hildebrandt’s criminal activity was exposed, thousands of individuals reported that [ConneXions] destroyed their lives and their families. Many even contemplated suicide at the hands of the Enterprise.”
Hildebrandt and Franke first made headlines in August 2023, when Franke’s then-12-year-old son escaped from Hildebrandt’s home with open wounds and asked neighbors for help. Franke was best known for the family vlogging channel 8 Passengers, which had over two million YouTube subscribers before it was shut down. When police found remnants of duct tape on the child’s hands, they responded to Hildebrandt’s house where Franke’s then-10-year-old daughter was also found emaciated. Both Hildebrandt and Franke were arrested and held without bail.
In December 2023, Franke signed a plea deal, in which she admitted she “knowingly inflicted and allowed another adult to inflict” harm on her children. Franke confessed to forcing her children to do physical labor and punishments, cutting off her son’s oxygen supply, binding his wrists and ankles, and making her daughter run outside barefoot on hot days. Hildebrandt also pleaded guilty to four counts of child abuse.
During her sentencing, Franke claimed that she was essentially brainwashed by Hildebrandt’s teachings and strong personality. “For the past four years, I’ve chosen to follow counsel and guidance that has led me into a dark delusion,” Franke said. “My distorted version of reality went largely unchecked as I would isolate from anyone who challenged me.”
Tilleman claims that a similar type of coercion happened with Savage. “Savage and Hildebrandt immediately identified [Tilleman] as an individual in ‘distortion’ upon whom they needed to inflict severe psychological abuse to be brought into ‘Truth,’” the suit alleges. “Savage masterfully implemented the Enterprise’s dark teachings to… destroy [Tilleman’s] life.”