It made for a glamorous change to the usual perp walk outside Brooklyn Federal Court.
The founder and CEO of ‘orgasmic meditation cult’ OneTaste dressed to impress as they appeared with an entourage of supporters after it was accused of forcing women into sex acts and keeping them in ‘residential warehouses’.
But there were no dirty photos for Nicole Daedone and Anjuli Ayer as they faced photographers outside the New York courthouse.
Their San Francisco-based company made $12 million a year from their sexual dysfunction treatments for women, including genital massage by a man wearing a latex glove.
It received praise from celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Khloe Kardashian, and welcomed 35,000 people to its events in 2018.
OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone (center) stepped out of the courtroom today, flanked by CEO Anjuli Ayer, former CEO Rachel Cherwitz and a crowd of supporters
Nicole Daedone, 56, founder and former CEO of OneTaste, surrendered at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn last year
The company made $12 million a year through its seminars and treatment programs before an FBI investigation into allegations of abuse
But the FBI began investigating in November that year after former clients came forward to say they were in debt after paying for expensive classes, and former employees said they had been instructed to have sex with potential investors.
Former employee Ayries Blanck filed a lawsuit against the company in August 2015, claiming they subjected her to a “hostile work environment, sexual harassment, failure to pay minimum wage and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
But she was sued by the group for violating a non-disclosure agreement when she contributed to the 2022 Netflix documentary Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste.
Blanck’s sister Autymn repeated accusations that OneTaste “tolerated violence” and “found strangers to rape her.”
Prosecutors say Daedone and former CEO Rachel Cherwitz used a series of abusive and manipulative tactics against volunteers, contractors and employees.
They also allege that the duo has made OneTaste members dependent on the group for their shelter and basic needs and limited their independence and control.
The company operated in 39 cities, including New York, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, Boulder, Los Angeles, Austin and London, but some former clients claimed they were “raped” after becoming involved with the company, including one the BBC said she was attacked by a man called ‘Jake’.
The company closed all of its U.S. locations and halted all in-person classes in 2018, and Ayer, who succeeded Cherwitz as CEO in 2017, is not facing charges.
But she told Dailymail.com last year that the allegations are “completely false,” and that consent is the “first thing they teach.”
“I did not expect a five-year media campaign of negative accusations against us,” she added.
The group promoted “orgasmic meditation,” which Nicole Daedone demonstrated with former CEO Rachel Cherwitz at this 2022 LA event
Former employee Ayries Blanck alleged that the company ‘forced her to have sex and participate in orgasmic meditation with OneTaste employees, supervisors and customers’
“You take women and you take sexuality and then you combine it with some people who are upset in some way and want to tell lies.”
“This is not Nicole and Rachel who have been charged, this is Eros who has been charged. And this is in a sense, even among the people in the courtroom, a conversation between women.
Daedone and Cherwitz have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are free on $1 million and $300,000 bonds respectively, but they face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The company has already spent $15 million on legal fees and a judge at today’s hearing scheduled the trial to start in January next year.