They Promised ‘Orgasm Meditation.’ They Delivered a Sex Cult, Feds Say.
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A pair of former executives at OneTaste, the sexual wellness company that’s been described as an “orgasm cult,” was hit with a stunning federal indictment Tuesday accusing them of running a toxic community in which members were forced into sex and manipulated to the point they relied on OneTaste for even their most basic needs.
The charges are a culmination of damning accusations that’ve been levied against the duo for years, some of which were exposed in the 2022 Netflix documentary Orgasm inc: The story of OneTaste.
In a statement, the DOJ said Nicole Daedone, OneTaste’s founder, and Rachel Cherwitz, its former head of sales, subjected employees, contractors and customers to “economic, sexual, emotional and psychological abuse.”
While the feds didn’t explicitly call Daedone and Cherwitz cult leaders, they alleged the duo practiced “surveillance, indoctrination, and intimidation” to “manipulate” and maintain control over their pupils while limiting their outside contact.
“Under the guise of empowerment and wellness, the defendants are alleged to have sought complete control over their employees’ lives, including by driving them into debt and directing them to perform sexual acts while also withholding wages,” Breon Peace, U.S. District Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement.
OneTaste was founded by Daedone in 2004 as a sexuality-focused wellness company that marketed itself as being experts in “orgasmic meditation.” The company told people their sexual trauma and dysfunction could be healed—but only after they forked over thousands of dollars.
OneTaste’s business model was to charge for courses that taught sexual wellness, with its premier teachings being about the transcendental benefits of extended clitoral stimulation.
After paying a pricey fee, students would live—and have sex—in monitored warehouses. The feds say the company operated around San Francisco and New York, as well as in Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Austin, London, and Boulder, Colorado.
Prosecutors allege OneTaste “targeted” individuals who’d gone through trauma. Their classes would sometimes cost tens of thousands of dollars, but they’d allow students to incur debt with them. To make sure they were compensated, Cherwitz and Daedone coerced clients to open new credit cards, or forced them to work to pay their way, the feds say.
“The defendants advertised their company as being able to help individuals recover from past trauma,” said Michael J. Driscoll, the assistant director of the FBI’s New York office. “In reality, they allegedly targeted their victims in order to manipulate them not only into debt but to limit their independence and create a reliance on OneTaste for basic needs.”
Content retrieved from: https://www.thedailybeast.com/onetastes-nicole-daedone-promised-orgasms-she-delivered-a-sex-cult-feds-say.
