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US: Leaders of women's sexual wellness firm, OneTaste, convicted in forced labour trial
Prosecutor said that founder Daedone and former sales director, Cherwitz used abuse, intimidation and indoctrination to force OneTaste members into sexual acts.
The leaders of a sex-focused women’s wellness company, OneTaste Inc., have been convicted of federal forced labour charges. The California-based company promoted “orgasmic meditation”. Following a five-week trial, Nicole Daedone, founder of OneTaste Inc., and Rachel Cherwitz, the company's former sales director, were found by the Brooklyn jury guilty after deliberating for less than two days. Each faced 20 years in prison as per the sentence.
The prosecutors argued that the two women ran a scheme for years that groomed individuals, many of them victims of sexual trauma, to do their bidding.
They further claimed that Daedone 57 and Cherwitz, 44, used economic, sexual and psychological abuse, intimidation and indoctrination to force OneTaste members into sexual acts that they found uncomfortable or repulsive, such as having sex with prospective investors or clients. Followers were told to perform questionable acts as a way to obtain “freedom” and “enlightenment” and to demonstrate their commitment to OneTaste’s principles. Also, they did not pay promised earnings to the members-turned-workers and even forced some of them to take out new credit cards to continue taking the company's courses.
In her closing statement, Assistant US Attorney Nina Gupta said that the defendants "built a business on the backs" of victims who "gave everything" to them, including "their money, their time, their bodies, their dignity, and ultimately their sanity."
Meanwhile, Daedone's defence team cast her as a "ceiling-shattering feminist entrepreneur" who created a unique business around women's sexuality and empowerment. Cherwitz's lawyer argued that the witnesses who testified were not forced to do anything. When they did not like the organisation anymore or wanted to try other things, she said, they simply left. "The fact that they are regretting the actions that they took when they were younger is not evidence of a crime," she said.
OneTaste began in San Francisco in 2004 as a self-help commune that viewed female orgasms as key to sexual and psychological wellness and interpersonal connection.
