The Role of Media in Justice: Analyzing Bloomberg’s Influence on OneTaste’s FBI Investigation

On June 18, 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek published “The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company” by Ellen Huet.

The story had a profound impact on OneTaste Inc., its co-founder, its head of sales, and the reporter Huet.

Huet wrote about her story: 

“In 2018 I wrote an investigation for Bloomberg Businessweek about OneTaste, a sexual wellness company founded in San Francisco…. 

“I obsessed over this topic as I worked on the story. I dreamt about it. The story I wrote was the first to reveal the dark side of the company.” 

The FBI’s Investigation and Its Connection to Huet’s Reporting

A month after Bloomberg published its story, OneTaste’s CEO, Joanna Van Vleck, resigned. In October, four months after the story appeared, “OneTaste closed its U.S. offices—in San Francisco, New York City and Los Angeles—and stopped offering in-person courses and retreats globally,” according to a follow up story in Bloomberg, which also reported the FBI was investigating OneTaste.

November 13, 2018

“(Bloomberg) — The FBI has been making inquiries into OneTaste, a sexuality wellness company, according to three people familiar with the matter. U.S. investigators have asked people connected to OneTaste a range of questions, including whether the company pressured workers into sexual encounters to help close a sale, two of the people said. …

“In recent months, agents from the New York field office of the FBI have sought out and interviewed multiple people associated with OneTaste, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak about the process.”

Revenue Losses Followed Bloomberg’s Report

Huet’s initial story and the company’s response to it resulted in more than just a criminal investigation; it had lasting financial repercussions.

Revenue decreased from $8.2 million in 2017 (with taxable net profits of $4.1 million) to $2. 7 million in 2018 (with a net loss of $165k), the year the story was published, according to OneTaste owner and CEO Anjuli Ayer.  

The BBC announced on a podcast: 

“OneTaste Inc. stopped giving classes in person and we understand that there are now no physical OneTaste centres or OM Houses.”

Other Media Follow Suit

Bloomberg’s story inspired media coverage in Playboy, a nine-episode podcast on the BBC called “The Orgasm Cult,” a Netflix documentary “Orgasm Inc.: The Story of OneTaste,” and an episode of Vice’s “True Believers” called “OneTaste.”

Huet appeared in the Netflix and Vice documentaries. 

The BBC described Huet’s role: 

“In June 2018, Bloomberg Businessweek did an in-depth article on OneTaste, exposing the company’s predatory sales tactics. 

“The journalist was Ellen Huet, and her reporting also detailed allegations of sexual servitude. Not long after that, the FBI started making inquiries into OneTaste.” 

From Newsroom to Courtroom

After a five-year FBI investigation, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of NY filed a one-count federal indictment against the co-founder of OneTaste, Nicole Daedone, and her head of sales, Rachel Cherwitz, in April 2023. The charge was forced labor conspiracy.

US District Court Judge Diane Gujarati has scheduled the trial for January 2025.

Book Deal for Huet

Based on her Bloomberg story on OneTaste, Huet entered into a contract to write a book for MCD Books. She wrote:

“I’m writing a book about OneTaste, a sexual wellness company that’s alleged to be a sex cult. (The book is still untitled and is set to be published by MCD Books, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.)”

She wrote about her upcoming book in a newsletter:

“The OneTaste story captured me more than any other story I’ve reported on. So I’m writing a book on it. I started this newsletter in August 2021, when I went on book leave for three months from my job at Bloomberg.”

Impact and the Bloomberg Way

“The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company” by Ellen Huet, as published by Bloomberg, led to two indictments, the shutdown of a business with seven-figure annual revenues, coverage in several other media reports, the production of two documentaries, and a book deal for the reporter.

The Bloomberg Way provides a guide to the ethical standards Bloomberg expects from its reporters and editors.”When exposing the wrongdoing of others, we should be above reproach,” Bloomberg editors wrote in The Bloomberg Way, a 300-page Guide for Reporters and Editors. “The greater the story’s impact, the greater our obligation to withstand the most exacting scrutiny.”

Let us examine this story based on Bloomberg’s high standards as our guide. In our coverage, FR will strive to be as fair as possible and attempt to contact every significant person named in the story.

FR will also provide documentary evidence filed in court, published by OneTaste and elsewhere.

Frank Report Investigates

FR has extensively covered the ongoing prosecution of Daedone and Cherwitz, who could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of forced labor conspiracy. The coverage includes the defense’s serious allegations of FBI misconduct and prosecutorial overreach. FR has also published opinion editorials criticizing the prosecutor’s charge as unprecedented, flimsy, and dangerous in terms of setting a potential precedent. Other FR editorials and reports question the credibility of some accusers mentioned in Bloomberg’s original story.

This has led me to reexamine the story that started it all.

Is Bloomberg’s story “The Dark Side of the Orgasmic Meditation Company” the work of a crusading journalist whose intrepid investigation stopped a sex cult?

Or was this a case where the FBI and government prosecutors, inspired by Bloomberg’s story, falsely charged two innocent women? Or is it something in between? In any case, the Bloomberg story directly led to the prosecution.

The time is right to examine the role of the media in the prosecution of Americans. It should be instructive.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

Frank Parlato

Frank Parlato is an investigative journalist, media strategist, publisher, and legal consultant.

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