By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK The founder of OneTaste, a sexual wellness company that claims to teach "orgasmic meditation," plans to challenge a federal criminal charge that she surveilled group members and withheld promised wages, her lawyer said on Wednesday.
Reid Weingarten, a lawyer for Nicole Daedone, told U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati in a hearing in Brooklyn federal court that the indictment made public earlier this month lacked details and that he would move to dismiss it.
"Who are they saying were the victims?" Weingarten said. "Who are the slaves that we enslaved?"
Daedone, who also served as OneTaste's chief executive until 2017, and former head of sales Rachel Cherwitz have each pleaded not guilty to one count of forced labor conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn say they induced volunteers, contractors and employees to incur debt to take courses that they claimed could heal sexual trauma and dysfunction, and instructed them to engage in sex acts for "freedom and enlightenment."
Jenny Kramer, a lawyer for Cherwitz, told Gujarati her client denied the charges.
Founded in 2004, California-based OneTaste was the subject last year of the Netflix documentary "Orgasm Inc," which followed its rise and includes interviews with former members.
The company has said it has cooperated with prosecutors but called the charges the culmination of a "misogynistic" campaign to "tear down a feminine empowerment project."
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
