An entrepreneur who promoted group “orgasmic meditation” as a road to women’s well-being turned herself in and pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge of manipulating traumatized people into debt, undesired sex and underpaid work.
Nicole Daedone, who founded the sex-centric wellness company OneTaste, faces a federal forced labor conspiracy case that was unveiled last week. She was released Tuesday on $1 million bond, secured by her mother, her mother’s partner, and a OneTaste ally; the friend put up a sprawling property in Northern California’s Mendocino County.
“The idea that this woman, at this company, engaged in forced labor is as far from the truth and reality as one could comprehend,” defense lawyer Julia Gatto said outside court. She called Daedone “a ceiling-shattering feminist entrepreneur” who created a unique business around women’s sexuality and empowerment.
CALIFORNIA AND NEVADA MAY BAN FORCED PRISON LABOR
Prosecutors, however, say Daedone and former sales chief Rachel Cherwitz schemed to draw in people suffering from sexual trauma and turn them into unquestioning, cloistered followers who did their leaders’ bidding -– even if it meant having sex with prospective investors or clients, or taking out new credit cards in order to afford to keep taking courses.
The company’s “members” sometimes were told “to engage in sexual acts they found uncomfortable or repulsive as a requirement to obtain ‘freedom’ and ‘enlightenment’ and demonstrate their commitment to OneTaste and Daedone,” the indictment claims, and “resistance … was not tolerated.”
Meanwhile, according to the indictment, OneTaste didn’t pay promised wages and commissions to members-turned-workers.
OneTaste started in San Francisco, around 2005, as a sort of self-help commune that viewed female orgasms as key to sexual and psychological wellness and interpersonal connection. A centerpiece was “orgasmic meditation,” carried out by men manually stimulating women in a group…
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