An “orgasmic meditiation” guru accused of turning her sexual wellness business into a forced-labor cult has surrendered to authorities to face federal charges.
Nicole Daedone, 56, founder and former CEO of OneTaste, surrendered at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn Tuesday morning, and is expected to go before a judge later today, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn said.
Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, the company’s former head of sales, were charged by federal prosecutors last week with forced labor conspiracy. Cherwitz was arrested last week.
OneTaste rose to fame after its founding in San Francisco in 2004, drawing national media attention for its “orgasmic meditation” sessions, but allegations of a dark side of the business emerged after a 2018 expose in Bloomberg News and a 2022 Netflix documentary titled “Orgasm, Inc.”
Prosecutors allege that from from 2004 to 2018, Daedone and Cherwitz targeted trauma victims and recruited them to sign up for pricey courses, and encouraged them to take on debt if they couldn’t pay.
Once burdened by debt, these OneTaste members were pressured into living in communal homes and residential warehouses under constant surveillance, while the duo collected sensitive personal info about their past traumas, sexual histories and romantic relationships, federal prosecutors allege.
They put the members to work and “groomed” several to engage in sex acts with investors, clients, employees and beneficiaries, prosecutors said, encouraging them to end romantic relationships and cut off people in the outside world.
The duo regularly withheld their wages, keeping them trapped financially, prosecutors allege.