Nicole Daedone, left, the founder of wellness education company OneTaste and former OneTaste sales director Rachel Cherwitz, right, arrive at The Royal Courts of Justice ahead of High Court proceedings as Daedone, Cherwitz and OneTaste Inc. sue the BBC for defamation and data protection breaches over its 2020 podcast The Orgasm Cult. Picture date: Thursday, July 7, 2022. Photo credit should read: Ian West/PA Wire URN:67780831 (Press Association via AP Images)
The founder and a former top executive of a controversial San Francisco-based sexual wellness company have been indicted in a Brooklyn federal court on forced labor conspiracy charges.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York, OneTaste founder and former CEO Nicole Daedone and the company's former head of sales, Rachel Cherwitz, subjected members to a years-long regime of sexual, economic, emotional, and psychological abuse – including surveillance, indoctrination, and intimidation.
OneTaste is a business that also runs a commune in northern California. The locus of the enterprise is teaching adults Orgasmic Meditation, a form of sexual healing focusing entirely on the clitoris for an extended period – while never touching the male genitalia.
Several former members of OneTaste recently sued Netflix over a documentary about the group's yoni-centric empowerment practices.
"Given OneTaste's culture of individual empowerment, choice and consent, this is completely unjustified," OneTaste's current CEO, Anjuli Ayer, told The New York Times, criticizing the state and media representations of the group in response to the charges.
Federal prosecutors allege that the courses the company offered were pricey and "ranged from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars each," a press release announcing the charges says.
If members got a case of sticker shock, however, the defendants were allegedly there to ease their minds – and still empty their pockets.
"Daedone and Cherwitz induced the OneTaste members to incur debt, and at times directly assisted the OneTaste members in opening new credit cards, to pay for them," the press release claims.
The indictment alleges that, between 2004 and 2018, Daedone and Cherwitz "intentionally recruited individuals who had suffered prior trauma" and "advertised that OneTaste's courses and teachings could heal past sexual trauma and dysfunction."
Prosecutors also allege that Daedone and Cherwitz made pains to render the group's members "dependent on OneTaste for their shelter and basic necessities" and sought to limit members' "independence and control."
The indictment claims that while living in communal homes, members were subjected to "constant surveillance" while being directed to "sleep in shared assigned beds and eat, work and travel in groups."
Dissenting from the ideology proclaimed by Daedone was not tolerated, the indictment alleges, and members were expected to "exalt" her teachings while offering their "absolute commitment."
To enforce this regime of adoration, prosecutors say, Daedone and Cherwitz "collected sensitive information about the OneTaste members, including but not limited to information pertaining to the OneTaste members' prior trauma, sexual histories and relationships" and isolated them from outsiders – and by "breaking up established romantic relationships among the OneTaste members."
Prosecutors claim that failure to abide by the rules resulted in "public shame, humiliation and workplace retaliation."
Once employed by the company and allegiant to Daedone, members would allegedly be given the run-around on wages and commissions for their work, the indictment claims, with promised funds allegedly never delivered and employment agreements drastically altered out of the blue.
Then there was the sex work.
"As part of their employment at OneTaste, some of the OneTaste members engaged in sexual activity at the direction of the defendants Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz," the indictment alleges. "Daedone and Cherwitz, together with their co-conspirators, recruited and groomed OneTaste members to engage in sexual acts with OneTaste's current and prospective investors, clients, employees and beneficiaries, for the financial benefit of OneTaste and, in turn, the defendants. Daedone and Cherwitz also instructed the OneTaste members to engage in sexual acts they found uncomfortable or repulsive as a requirement to obtain "freedom" and "enlightenment" and demonstrate their commitment."
Cherwitz was arrested on Tuesday; Daedone is currently at-large.