Nicole Daedone, left, the founder of wellness education company OneTaste and former OneTaste Sales Director, Rachel Cherwitz, 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. (Press Association via AP Images)
The founder of controversial sexual wellness company OneTaste surrendered to authorities on forced labor conspiracy charges and quickly made bond in a Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday.
Nicole Daedone, 56, is the founder and former CEO of the San Francisco-based business that focuses on providing female orgasms – to the exclusion of male orgasms – and meditation practices centered around sexual wellness and women's empowerment.
Last week, Daedone and the company's former head of sales, Rachel Cherwitz, were indicted on forced labor charges over allegations they subjected members to a years-long regime of sexual, economic, emotional, and psychological abuse – including surveillance, indoctrination, and intimidation – to control them, their physical labor, and their pocketbooks. Cherwitz was arrested by federal agents last week in Northern California. Daedone had been at-large until she turned herself in on Tuesday morning.
Prosecutors allege 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."
Those teachings are costly – ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars apiece. According to the indictment, 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 those Orgasmic Meditation courses. A detention memo filed by federal prosecutors describes the courses as "a partnered practice typically involving the methodical stroking of a woman's genitals for a period of fifteen minutes."
The detention memo also alleges that Daedone and Cherwitz engaged in various tactics "designed to render the OneTaste members dependent on OneTaste for their shelter and basic necessities" and to limit their "independence and control." The pair allegedly collected sensitive information on members regarding their past trauma, relationships, and sexual histories while they lived in communal "warehouses" and "experimented sexually."
Often, prosecutors claim, Daedone and Cherwitz would break up "established romantic relationships" to further their interests and control and separated members from outside support networks to further enmesh them in the OneTaste community.
Several former members of OneTaste recently sued Netflix over a documentary about the group's yoni-centric empowerment practices.
The indictment broadly outlined a regime of adoration that members were expected to adhere to. They were expected to "exalt" Daedone's yoni-centric teachings – which have been feted by the New York Times – while offering their "absolute commitment."
The detention memo offers additional alleged details:
While employing such tactics, Daedone and Cherwitz promoted a philosophy and ethos based at the worship of "Orgasm" in which Daedone played a central role. Cherwitz, Daedone, and other leaders in the OneTaste community demanded absolute commitment to Daedone, including by exalting Daedone's teachings and ideology. As part of this ideology, Daedone and Cherwitz instructed the OneTaste members to engage in sexual acts—including acts the members found uncomfortable or repulsive as part of a so-called "aversion practice"— as a requirement to obtain freedom and enlightenment and demonstrate their commitment to OneTaste and Daedone.
Once employed by the company and allegiant to Daedone, volunteers, contractors, and employees 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.
There are also allegations concerning sexual coercion.
"Daedone and Cherwitz also 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, themselves," the detention memo says. "Resistance to Daedone's and Cherwitz's directives was not tolerated, and would often result in public shame, humiliation and workplace retaliation."
Prosecutors asked for strict bail conditions in the detention memo and received exactly that during Daedone's arraignment.
The defendant pleaded not guilty and was assessed a $1 million bond, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York told Law&Crime in an email. Daedone's bond was also secured by her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and a friend putting up a $2 million property in Fort Bragg, California, as a surety to ensure her continued presence in court.
Prosecutors argued Daedone was a substantial flight risk because she had just returned stateside "from weeks of continuous overseas travel to various destinations in Europe and Asia."
The defendant is being represented by attorneys Reid Weingarten and Julia Gatto. Her next court appearance is slated for June 24 before U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati.
