In the face of accusations involving grooming young women to have sex with clients, the company OneTaste is arguing that it was nothing more than a health and fitness organization.
In Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, an attorney for the controversial group’s founder, Nicole Daedone, asserted that the brand was just a “wellness” company similar to SoulCycle and Crossfit.
OneTaste, founded in San Francisco in 2004, was the subject of a Netflix documentary called “Orgasm Inc.,” which displayed the rise and fall of the company through the allegations.
Daedone’s lawyer, Julia Gatto, said the feds lack a case against Daedone, who is accused of grooming members on OneTaste into having sex with investors and clients for more than a decade, as her “scientifically backed” business is supposedly legitimate.
“People who take the classes do the training. Many of them become practitioners,” Gatto told Judge Diane Gujarati about the company, which promoted “orgasmic meditation” for women.
Gatto also argued that OneTaste occupies the same “space” as yoga and meditation by helping people hone their craft and fitness hobbies.
Meanwhile, prosecutors are arguing that Daedone and her former head of sales, Rachel Cherwitz, ran the business like a cult by recruiting victims with prior trauma and promising to heal their sexual dysfunction.
Allegedly, the two forced members and employees into debt and subjected them to “economic, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse” through “surveillance, indoctrination, and intimidation” to get free labor out of them, as cited by the indictment.
In an effort to persuade judges to drop the case, Gatto asserted prosecutors misrepresented the business, and that the alleged victims joined of their own accord.
However, Judge Gujarati didn’t rule on the defense’s motion to dismiss the case and ordered Daedone and Cherwitz to return to court for a status conference on May 3.
Daedone and Cherwitz have been charged with forced labor conspiracy for the alleged misconduct, which reportedly ran for 14 years before ending in 2018.
Cherwitz attorney, Jenny Kramer, argued that the briefness of the indictment, which is a mere 14 paragraphs, was too light considering it took five years before the charges were unsealed in June of 2023.
The pair, who pleaded not guilty last year, were present for the hour-long hearing, but did not publicly comment on the charges.
Federal prosecutor Lauren Howard Elbert said that Daedone’s and Cherwitz’ manipulative tactics will be used as evidence through witness testimony during trial, which is set to begin in January 2025.
If convicted, the two face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.
