Boss ordered employees to have sex at Bay Area startup: Witnesses

BROOKLYN (CN) — The head of sales at a sex-focused Bay Area startup directed employees to have sex to break up tension on the team, witnesses testified at a federal trial in Brooklyn. 

During a 2013 sales meeting, Rachel Cherwitz, now 44, was upset that profits were down at the New York City branch of OneTaste, a former sales employee named Max testified Thursday. Max said Cherwitz attributed the dip to sexual tension between two employees — “tumescence,” in the parlance of the company, which witnesses have described as a sex cult — and told them, “I want you guys to go have sex right now.” 

As prosecutors present their forced labor conspiracy case against Cherwitz and OneTaste founder Nicole Daedone, 57, Max’s account backed up previous testimony from Becky, the government’s first witness and one of the two employees who followed Cherwitz’s order before returning to the sales meeting. 

While Becky couldn’t remember the specifics of the sexual encounter, she said it was awkward because the man with whom she was told to “have a makeout” (a OneTaste term for sexual activity) was in a relationship with her friend, who was also in the sales meeting. While the rest of the group waited for the pair to return, that friend — also a friend of Max’s — broke down; Max, too, hit a breaking point, they said.

“I felt so sick inside. I think that was the moment when I just woke up,” Max testified. They left the group a few months later. 

Max’s testimony mirrored Becky’s in other ways: Both said they were required to be on call 24 hours a day, had to respond immediately to text messages during their waking hours and weren’t allowed to take sick or vacation days. 

They lived together in a communal apartment in Harlem known as The Morellino, where OneTaste members all shared beds — including Cherwitz, albeit in a penthouse upstairs — and were instructed to report on each other to Cherwitz, including whether any residents seemed distant from the group. 

“There was no private space whatsoever in the house,” Max said. 

Max’s duties included driving Daedone around to go tanning, get coffee or get her hair done, Max testified. They also booked venues for events and arranged food, stages and microphones. 

When Daedone came to visit the New York office, Max and others would clean her room before and after her stay. It was considered an honor to take care of Daedone. 

“There were times when Nicole had sex in that room and I would be cleaning up, like, used condoms,” they testified. 

Max also picked up supplies from a storage unit to set up “nests” for the company’s core practice, called “orgasmic meditation” or “OMing,” but unlike the ancient, solitary practice of meditation, it’s a partnered ritual that involves stroking a woman’s clitoris (or a man’s penis, in a “male OM”) for a period of 15 minutes. Supplies included yoga mats, meditation cushions and washcloths to place underneath the “strokees.”

Long hours, no pay

For their work, Max wasn’t paid for months until they complained to higher-ups and finally got put on the payroll. Defense attorneys on cross-examination pointed to government agent notes that indicated Max was volunteering at that time. But Max — who hails from rural Humboldt County in Northern California, where they said it’s common to take a job based on verbal confirmation alone — believed that being hired would mean getting paid. 

In addition to lengthy work hours — government exhibits showed Max sending Cherwitz updates at nearly 1 a.m., the end of their regular hours — residents at OneTaste homes had to join morning “OM circles” and practice Bikram yoga, which is done in a room heated to 105 degrees Fahrenheit. 

While Max said on cross-examination that they didn’t consider daily yoga to be part of their worked hours, witnesses have agreed that skipping it wasn’t an option.

“If I wasn’t feeling good, there wasn’t a possibility of not doing practice,” Max said. “We all mutually enforced each other’s participation, but Rachel Cherwitz always wanted to know who was showing up.” 

When Becky testified, prosecutors showed a text message where she asked Cherwitz if she could skip yoga because she had her period and felt “knocked out.” Cherwitz replied: “No. Yoga. Lay on the mat, but you need to go.” 

Defense attorneys on cross-examination have shown that residents in OneTaste housing agreed to a set of rules and knew in advance that they’d be sharing beds and required to check in frequently with their housemates. Witnesses acknowledged they didn’t report their discomfort with being asked to “OM” with strangers, often high-paying clients and potential investors, to higher-ups at OneTaste. 

The defense has also shown photographs and Facebook posts in which the witnesses were enthusiastic in their praise for OneTaste and proclaimed how happy they were to be part of the group — something none of them have denied. 

Rather, ex-members say they were enthralled by Daedone and OneTaste to the extent that they were “brainwashed,” and when they did leave, they found it hard to reintegrate and talk to people who weren’t familiar with the company, its teachings or its vocabulary. 

As to why they stayed, none of the witnesses have described feeling fear that they were in danger; they feared losing their entire community and felt as though life elsewhere would be impossible. 

“These concepts and teachings reshaped my understanding of the world I was living in,” Max said. “My whole life and whole world was OneTaste.”

Trial will resume Monday and is expected to last until mid-June.

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