Rotten Mango

Part 4: ‘Sex Cult’ Founder Wants EVERY Women To Heal Thru Orgasm Ends Up In Prison w/ Ghislaine Maxwell

50 min
Feb 12, 20262 months ago
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Summary

This episode concludes the One Taste investigation, detailing the organization's legal collapse, Nicole Day-Doan and Rachel's arrest and conviction for forced labor conspiracy, and their ongoing appeals and potential presidential pardon strategy. The case reveals how a Silicon Valley wellness company disguised coercion and financial exploitation as spiritual empowerment, with victims experiencing lasting psychological and financial damage.

Insights
  • Emotional manipulation and love-bombing are difficult to prosecute legally despite causing severe psychological harm, as juries struggle to distinguish between consensual choice and coerced compliance
  • Crisis management and aggressive legal defense strategies (similar across Weinstein, Cosby, R. Kelly, and Diddy cases) focus on discrediting victims rather than addressing substantive allegations
  • Cult-like organizations operating in wellness and tech spaces exploit vulnerable populations by framing exploitation as spiritual growth and personal empowerment
  • Media investigations (Ellen Hewitt's Bloomberg article) can trigger federal investigations and public awareness that traditional legal systems alone may not achieve
  • Charismatic leaders maintain influence even during prosecution by strategically engaging media, cultivating loyal followers, and reframing victimization as persecution
Trends
Wellness industry exploitation using neuroscience and oxytocin release as justification for coercive practicesSilicon Valley tech culture enabling predatory business models through venture capital funding and lack of oversightCoordinated social media campaigns by cult followers to humiliate and discredit trial witnessesDefense strategy convergence across high-profile cases: victim-blaming, emphasizing consensual choice, and attacking credibilityRight-wing media courting by convicted defendants as pathway to presidential pardonsPrivate settlements obscuring full scope of victim compensation and perpetrator accountabilityRebranding and fragmentation of failed organizations into multiple successor companies with similar practicesInfluencer and follower loyalty persisting despite criminal convictions and documented abuse
Topics
Forced Labor Conspiracy Charges and Sentencing DisparitiesCult Dynamics in Wellness and Tech IndustriesVictim Testimony Credibility in Emotional Manipulation CasesCrisis Public Relations and Defense Strategy in High-Profile TrialsLove-Bombing and Coercive Control MechanismsFinancial Exploitation Through Course Upselling and Credit Card DebtSexual Coercion and Bodily Autonomy ViolationsJury Pool Bias in Sexual Assault and Exploitation CasesMedia Investigation Impact on Federal Criminal InvestigationsPresidential Pardon Strategy and Political Alignment ShiftsOrganizational Rebranding Post-ScandalInvestor Exploitation and Quid Pro Quo Sexual ArrangementsNeuroscience Misuse in Justifying AbuseWitness Intimidation and Social Media Harassment Campaigns
Companies
One Taste
Central subject: Silicon Valley wellness company operating as sex cult, charging millions for OM sessions, convicted ...
The Eros Platform
Nicole Day-Doan's successor company launched post-FBI investigation, continuing similar spiritual/wellness content wi...
Netflix
Produced documentary on One Taste that prompted Nicole's return from hiding and influenced public awareness of the case
Bloomberg
Ellen Hewitt published original investigative takedown article that triggered FBI investigation and public scrutiny
Inc. Magazine
Listed One Taste as world's fastest-growing startup despite ongoing exploitation and fraud
Vice
Produced 15-minute investigative documentary on One Taste
Apple
Eli Block, listed as Eros Platform leader, previously worked at Apple Genius Bar before joining One Taste
People
Nicole Day-Doan
Founder of One Taste, convicted of forced labor conspiracy, currently imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn, pursuing appeal and...
Rachel
Head of sales at One Taste, co-defendant with Nicole, convicted of forced labor conspiracy, employed same legal team
Ellen Hewitt
Bloomberg journalist and author of 'Empire of Orgasm,' wrote original investigative article that triggered FBI invest...
Ghislaine Maxwell
Imprisoned at MDC Brooklyn alongside Nicole and Rachel; referenced as comparison for high-profile incarceration cases
Reese
Tech investor and Nicole's boyfriend, invested $1M+ in One Taste, received sexual services from members, later went b...
Jennifer Bongine
Defense attorney for Nicole, previously represented Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, and Keith Raniere
Judah Engelmayer
Crisis PR manager hired by Nicole, specializes in high-profile criminal cases, charges $10K-$30K monthly
Harvey Weinstein
Referenced as comparison for high-profile sexual exploitation case with overlapping legal representation
Sean Diddy Combs
Referenced as comparison case; Nicole claims her conviction represents gender-based double standard versus his acquittal
Keith Raniere
NXIVM cult leader; referenced as parallel case with overlapping legal representation (Mark Agnifolo)
Anna Delvey
Fraudster who hired Judah Engelmayer as crisis PR manager; referenced as client of same publicist
Michelle
One Taste member publicly humiliated by Rachel, stripped and subjected to forced OM demonstration
Ben
One Taste member whose romantic interest triggered Rachel's retaliation against Michelle
Eli Block
Listed as leader of Eros Platform, previously worked at Apple Genius Bar
Quotes
"Freedom is an inside job. There's no condition that can keep you from being free. Not a man, not your history, not your trauma, not an ism, not a government, not a boss, not even an addiction."
Nicole Day-DoanPrison video message from MDC Brooklyn
"It's so hard for me to convey how violent it was, even though there's no like violence. I've never been that violated. It was sort of like a public r-wording. It wasn't that the physical action was painful but it was so deliberate, it was a deliberate manipulation of my body and my mind so that i could feel pain."
Michelle (One Taste victim)Describing forced OM experience
"Knowing how alcohol works doesn't prevent you from getting drunk."
One Taste victimExplaining cult manipulation despite understanding mechanisms
"You and I share a strange intimacy."
Nicole Day-DoanTo Ellen Hewitt during trial
"The defendants built a business on the backs of victims who gave up everything for them including their money their time, their bodies, their dignity, and ultimately their sanity."
EDNY (Eastern District of New York prosecutors)Trial statement
Full Transcript
this is part four of the audio podcast of one taste the final part we're going to dive into the whole legal aspect of things the trial the fact that nicole day doan hires the same people as like harvey weinstein sean diddy combs there's a lot of weird overlap there and she even brings up diddy she thinks the fact that she got a higher conviction than diddy is sexism in its finest so we're going to dive into all of that, but I will say, please go listen to part one, part two, and part three first. There's a lot that's been happening. I can't even really recap it, but One Taste is a part business. I mean, it was originated in San Francisco, Silicon Valley. And so there is this aspect of One Taste that feels like the new age, modern wellness camp for women. It's all about the OM. The OM is a 15 minute meditative session where a woman walks into a yoga studio and a male stroker, fully clothed, comes in and massages her downstairs parts to release tension and to release this sexual energy that she has been storing inside of her body. Nicole Day-Done is a woman that is very highly confused. She doesn't know what message she's trying to sell and it's very clear because at one point she's like, women are the most powerful beings on the planet, it. And the next moment she's like, beg your partner to S their D if they will allow you. They are just a mess. And this is going to be the final part of everything that has been happening. And it all starts with a blonde woman. Nicole Day Doan is standing there in a beige jumpsuit. Her hair is perfect though. She's wearing a full face of makeup and you can see prison bunks behind her. Gray metal bunks. There's a fluorescent light bulb just hanging above her head, almost looking like it's a halo. She says, this is your dispatch from your sisters on the inside from Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, from a dorm of 37 women. Thank you for gathering tonight. You may be over there and I may be over here, but your spirit travels. And now I'm going to tell you the truth. I've lived for 30 years. She's like way older than 30, by the way. As his holiness, the Dalai Lama has said, Western woman will save the world. I believe there will be a revolution, but the difference is this revolution will not be against anyone. It will be an inner revolution. We will not spend our lives fighting the power because we are the power. There is one enemy, our shared enemy, and it's ignorance. I think she fully believes that she is Hunger Games Katniss severedine i don't know what she's doing but she continues ignorance is the real prison and the cure for ignorance is not more contempt it's contact freedom is an inside job here in mdc brooklyn we have a term ops opposition enemies people you can't trust sometimes by association sometimes by rumor no she really thinks it's like a term that only exists in prison No, she doesn't understand Yeah, yeah, yeah Sometimes because of old histories That we drag behind us like chains And you can see the sickness of separation magnified She describes her dorm at MDC A room full of 37 women all in dire straits Women the world calls criminals, animals, threats Spending precious energy that could be used to heal and build Instead of battling over turf or battling over who is talking to a man. So remember how we talked to Brad from MDC Brooklyn and he said that there are these vents that a lot of the male inmates and the female inmates will talk to. Can you explain again for the people? Yes. Okay, so basically like MDC Brooklyn houses male inmates and female inmates. Separately? Separately, yes. But they can hear each other through these vents, like these AC vents. And so they'll scream dirty, nasty, just like filthy talk and love and lust. So they will have like slotted times. yeah so like jiao would say 2 p.m is my time with my date yeah and then they would like climb to through this little van and they're like one floor above each other and they were screaming through the vent just like dirty talks yeah going on dates and then eventually like they'll meet each other and realize like they don't look the way that they assumed that they should look like and it's like a whole dramatic thing well i guess it's still existing in the great year of 2026 because Nicole is like, I see all these girls. They call it the gate. Yeah. Oh, the little AC van is the gate? They go to the gate and they talk to all these guys and sometimes they battle over who is talking to who or which guy. And so she says, all the women in prison are super focused on that. And it's not just prisoners, you know. This is a woman, Papa. And that hole we're trying to fill can only be filled by one thing, our own power, our own holiness. Freedom is an inside job. There's no condition that can keep you from being free. Not a man, not your history, not your trauma, not an ism, not a government, not a boss, not even an addiction. The only thing that you is you can hold yourself down with the stories you believe. The story that says someone somewhere is to blame for my life. The truth is you are free right now. The question is, will you claim it? the video cuts and i didn't know mdc brooklyn was just letting people make vlogs now because we want to see one from luigi not you nicole okay they're not this is an ai generated video to get nicole's followers all riled up after she's been placed in jail you're kidding me yeah does it look ai oh yeah riled up to do exactly what we're gonna find out nicole takes the wise words of a former cult leader because she needs a pit bull someone to protect nicole this is before she goes to jail she needs someone that can attack on command if needed and the only person that fits that role is rachel i don't know exactly what nicole sees in rachel i mean the moment that rachel walked into one taste She just seemed very vulnerable. Her boyfriend had just broken up with her, like I said in the beginning. She's sleeping on a bed next to her ex-boyfriend now that she traveled across the country with to join One Taste. She has no money. All they could offer was their labor in exchange for living at the warehouse. I mean, this is their dream. The first few hours they get there, Rachel genuinely thinks this is heaven. Even when her boyfriend breaks up with her, she thinks this is heaven. She thinks she's made it. This is what she wants to be here for. and Rachel is very confusing because she's later going to be the only other person charged alongside Nicole Day-Done but a lot of people think that Rachel herself is a victim. There is one video where Rachel is sitting on Nicole's lap like a child and Nicole leans over and bites Rachel on the neck. Rachel squeals and leans in towards Nicole and Nicole looks around and she's proudly showing everyone. Did you see that? You do that and she comes closer. Almost saying it's human instinct to want to pull away when someone's biting you. But she's so trained. She's so obsessed with Nicole that she comes closer. And Rachel has like a playful aura that throws people off. In one seminar, Rachel says, hi, I'm Rachel and I teach the dark arts. I would say that's the fourth dimensional class that I teach. The third dimensional class that I teach is sales. Ultimately though, people in one taste with very close interactions with Nicole and Rachel would say, Rachel was willing to do anything Nicole wanted her to do in terms of advancing OneTaste and protecting OneTaste. I get that she could have come from a vulnerable place, but there are so many incidents that members have spoken out about what Rachel has done to them. And yes, it's under the pressure of Nicole. Nicole is pressuring her to have higher sales, do these crazy things so that she can keep everyone under control. But she doesn't have to do this. Rachel has a crush on a new member, a new guy from OneTaste. And this guy, he's also talking to a bunch of women because that's the culture at one taste. It's the warehouse. Everybody's sleeping with everybody. And let's call this girl Michelle. Michelle is like one of Rachel's prodigies. So Nicole has Rachel and Rachel has like a group of girls that she's also keeping close that feel like her closest confidants, the ones that she tells to go and do things or help her with things that she's training for what? I don't know. And so Michelle is one of the inner circle girls. Michelle gets a flirty text message from this guy, Ben. And there's so many emojis in it. And Rachel and Michelle are like sisters. Michelle sees Rachel as a sister. So she shows Rachel, not knowing that Rachel also likes Ben. And she's just like, look at what Ben texted me. And all hell breaks loose. Michelle, because she is one of Rachel's favorites, she was told that she has really strong energy, OM energy, which we learned is like the most important thing for women. It's like if you are able to have that call that is so strong, to have the sexual energy that is so strong people can feel it, then of course One Taste is going to want you to be a part of the demonstrations. So when they do these big seminars, you're the one getting stroked. And it's a really big honor because that means your energy is infectious. That's like a high compliment. That's basically saying like you've got holy blood in you or something. And it doesn't matter what you want. It doesn't matter how you feel. I mean, most of them want it because they've been told over and over again, this is the highest achievement. And by this point, they're so deep in it that they've been manipulated into thinking like, this is exactly what I need to do. This is my calling, basically. It's an honor. Yeah. And so Michelle was going to be someone who is doing these demonstrations. And she was like, she was really proud of that. She worked so hard to get there. She was practicing OM. She was doing everything Rachel told her to do just so she could be part of these demonstrations. And then Rachel one day brings her into the full group at the warehouse in front of everyone, including Ben, the guy that they like. and announces that Michelle has a disease, a spiritual virus, where her turn on energy, the most important thing, is broken. So for weeks, nobody is allowed to look at Michelle, interact with Michelle, because they don't want to feed the beast. There's a beast in her who's hungry, and we can't feed the beast. Otherwise, the beast will take over Michelle. And so if we really love Michelle, we should ignore her. And then finally, Michelle, it's like a very traumatic experience where she hears the huge commotion first thing in the morning. She's like barely awake. She's in her pajamas. She hasn't even brushed her teeth. And they're like, Michelle, you got to come out here, right? She goes out into the main living area of the warehouse. And Rachel is saying that this other girl is going to be the new girl for the demonstrations. And Michelle is like, wait, what do you mean? I've been working so hard for this role. Like I did everything you wanted me to do. Why are you suddenly saying I can't be the one? And Rachel is like, okay, then prove it. So she has Michelle stripped down, like she's so confused from just waking up, stripped down, get on the table, and Rachel is directing a random guy to give her an om. Midway through though, Rachel takes over and starts really aggressively oming Michelle, and then she asks Ben, the guy that she likes, to go to the other side of the room and see if he can feel Michelle's energy. If he can, then she can be the girl for the demonstration. If not, then she can't. He loudly announces to everyone, no, he can't feel a thing. And so she lets her put her clothes back on. And members say that Michelle was in shock for hours, just sobbing the rest of the day. Michelle later says, it's so hard for me to convey how violent it was, even though there's no like violence. I've never been that violated. It was sort of like a public r-wording it wasn't that the physical action was painful but it was so deliberate it was a deliberate manipulation of my body and my mind so that i could feel pain it felt like torture so this is completely rachel's doing because she likes a guy exactly so this wasn't a direction came from nicole at least not that we know of no right exactly so i don't i you know she clearly came up with her own methods to get what she wants, which is when Nicole was doing, right? Yeah, they're crazy. So I don't have sympathy for Rachel. I think typically I am more easy to be on the fence about things like this I don know maybe I just naive but like sometimes it hard for me when you don know where the line is crossed between when someone is a victim turned perpetrator and like how much push was there Obviously if you have a gun to your head figuratively or physically, it could be different. But this is just weird. I feel like Rachel starts getting all of that emotional trauma that Nicole is lashing out onto her. Because I will say that someone who spoke of Rachel later said, Nicole was so mean to Rachel. She like preyed on her insecurities. She would say the exact things to make Rachel spiral into her ED all over again, just so she could be the one that saves Rachel. And it was just very unhealthy. But I feel like she bottles all of that up from Nicole. And instead of lashing out at Nicole or leaving, she starts taking it on other people. and a lot of things in one taste just spiral out of control so do the finances and the way that nicole tries to keep the investors happy remember her tech boyfriend reese that's the one that they created this seven deadly sins birthday experience for they also did a wizard of oz birthday experience where they had a bed hanging from suspending from the ceiling and then twisting from the ceiling And Reese was supposed to get on top of it and have intimate relations with women. So these are, she's making all these members do a birthday surprise for her boyfriend. By all accounts, it seems like she treated it as if it was some quarterly investor call conference. Like it was a big part of One Taste. Planned weeks in advance. That's actually crazy. Lots of members are part of it. Lots of people are catering to him. Yeah, so he would walk in and the warehouse would be playing tornado noises on the speakerphones. And then the bed would be twisting in the air because the Wizard of Oz is like a tornado. That is crazy. And all of this was to keep this random dude happy. According to court documents, I mean, he did have very strong interest in creative situations. He liked to be walked around wearing a dog collar and a leash. He wanted someone to come into his house to tend to his very intimate needs. and in return he paid for nicole's ghostwriters her lawyers her company at one point reese just becomes the only customer and client at one taste everybody's focus suddenly has to shift to how to keep reese happy is this at the tail end of the company or just in the middle in the middle oh reese would come in and women would have to take him upstairs to the bathroom where they perform for him and it was just i will say the really damaging part of it is it was framed as women exploring their own desires and this is why i personally say i don't like reese because you can't tell me that yeah someone doesn't get an inkling that people don't want to do this like you can't just tell me that he just walks in and all these young women i mean he looks a certain way and it just doesn't make sense in my head i don't know but it was framed as these women are not even doing it for nicole they're not doing it for reese they're doing it for themselves for greater enlightenment one former member describes the setup like this nicole feeds Reese's woman and she gets all the benefit. But it only gets worse once Nicole and Reese break up because Reese poured at least a million dollars into one taste. He is on the fence about demanding that money back, which would cause the company to most likely go under. I mean, he has no emotional ties to Nicole anymore. Why would he care what happens to her? That is why it's important for Nicole to get Reese to, you know, be nice to her, to feel some sort of connection to her. So what he, what she does is she supplies a constant supply of women. Nicole convinces the woman that this is an honor to be able to go live in Reese's mansion in San Francisco and serve him. This is not an abuse of power. This is a spiritual opportunity that women should be thankful for. So they pick two women from One Taste to go live with Reese to be his handler. And the worst part of it is they pick two queer women who don't even like men and definitely don't like Reese. one was very vocal about struggling with her sexuality because of OneTaste. She said that OneTaste kept telling her that she had to unlock her full potential by being hungry for the male body part. So both of them get sent to live with Reese. They don't want to. I mean, they don't even know what this means. And every single day they wake up, they do the laundry, they do all the house chores, they put away the groceries, they feed Reese dinner. Sometimes he wants them to eat with him. Sometimes he just wants them to keep him company. and then almost every single day there would be some sort of intimate favor that they would have to complete and during a seminar Nicole bragged about it she told the class when I was with Reese I used to set up pussy for him every day every day I would set up pussy I'd set up experiences the only reason it seemed to stop is because Reese goes broke his finances start taking he's maxing out all of his credit cards he can't afford his mortgage he put more than a million dollars into the company and he wants his money back and nicole knows that there is no no more flowing drip of money coming he went broke yeah really i don't know how broke he went because i was looking into it and now he is he opened up his own venture capital firm but that's like what a lot of weird tech scammers seem to do too so i don't know if this is like a legitimate one or if he's just pretending to have a job yeah and how can how does he walk away from this without any lawsuits or anything. That's crazy what he's doing. I wonder if he settled privately with some victims. I know that One Taste settled privately with a victim, but it just, yeah. Like maybe that could have been part of the reason that he went broke. I'm not entirely sure. So is One Taste still around today or no? It's complicated. So a lot of the higher ups that were with the original One Taste, they started branching off and creating their own companies that are very similar to OneTaste, but that are all about like tantric wellness. Or some of them are straight up like dating coaches services. A lot of the male higher-ups just started dating coach services. And Nicole still has a company, The Eros. They have a whole YouTube channel, a whole blog that is run by people. Even up until her arrest, she was creating these... I have a conspiracy. I have a conspiracy. see where they have these videos where it seems like they're giving a seminar, but you only see Nicole and you only see the person, like her special guest that she's yapping to. Nicole talks like my mom, if I were to give my mother 10 cups of coffee and maybe like three Adderalls, just like, I don't know what this lady is saying. Like, you know how like people, as they get older, they start yapping and you're like, I don't know if any of this is like connecting and she just gets weird do you know what i'm i don't know if i'm describing it correctly that's the only that's the feeling that i kept getting which is like you know when your grandma just is like yapping in circles and then she kind of forgets the point that she was yapping about but then it devolves into a different point and then it keeps evolving into another point and then you're like i think we've lost the plot i don't even know what you're saying okay so what's your conspiracy okay so my conspiracy is i don't think that they were booking seminars i don't think that they were selling these classes i think that they rented a little scenic office space that looks like where you would have a conference and she would change outfits and just create these youtube videos is my conspiracy because i'm like i don't think anyone is here listening to this and what's the purpose of that to just seem like she's still got it the company is like running and and to have more people join the company is my conspiracy definitely my personal opinion definitely not a statement of fact what do i know right so they're no longer around that the heiress platform is still posting they're still posting the ai video of nicole they have other leaders uh i think there's okay so there's this guy named eli block who on the website is like the leader of he will teach you the way blah blah blah he was like um i think he was just like a genius tech bar at apple genius what like he worked the genius troubleshooting bar at apple or something i think before all of this but on the website they're like he knows the answer to life i'm like sir you used to work for apple like two days ago again two days ago is not factually accurate wait so he is still running the the the seems like company yeah what and there was okay it gets so confusing right before nicole's arrest before the fbi investigation yeah and can you talk about later like how did it even fall apart yes so before the fbi investigation nicole sells the company one taste for millions of dollars to one taste clients really wealthy clients yeah oh they yeah well they seem litigious so i'm not gonna oh okay so she sells it doesn't matter because it doesn't seem like they're doing anything that Nicole is doing. So they take on OneTaste and they try to keep it somewhat running, but everyone is like associating all of the now coming on allegations against OneTaste to the OneTaste that they now run. So it's like they just got handed a shit storm. So then OneTaste shutters, they shut down. I don't know if they rebranded that, but that is completely unconnected to Nicole. And then you had a bunch of the higher ups at OneTaste. Once that sale went through, either some of them went to the new company OneTaste or some of them started their own businesses of being dating coaches or tantric wellness gurus. Okay. And then you have Nicole who goes MIA during the FBI investigation. Nobody knew where she was. Was she in Italy? Was she in Bali? We don't know. And then eventually she comes back to the US and she's like, you know what? I'm not going to hide anymore. I'm going to start my new company called the Eros platform, which is basically all the spiritual yapping and none of the oming. Like she still talks about oming, but it's just, I don't know what it is. Honestly, I don't understand the business structure. It's, there's a website, there's podcasts, you can buy courses. You can still buy those very similar courses of oming and all of these things. You can be like a super member of the website. Every article I clicked on too, it's like, once you click like 10 articles, it'd be like half the page would be blocked and it'd be like, please sign up. And I'd be like, no. it's like one of those okay so yeah and then she gets arrested okay but someone is still running the arrows platform they're still posting blog posts they're still posting on the youtube page are people watching are people commenting not really i feel like i'm half the people watching so it seems like not right sure half those views are like the rm team and me just every day like oh my god i gotta go so by this point though one taste is still nicole's risa's out but it's still one of the i mean probably at this point it's like the greatest single word for any business in sf profitable they are profitable now they're not just relying on money from nicole's romantic interest they are finally making money they want to be the next blooming Dales, the soul cycle of a woman's own. They want to create a database where one day strokers get a barcode on a key chain. You go to a location and you're like, Hey, I want to own, let me scan your barcode. It connects to the app on your phone. And it's like, this is level master stroker. And it just verifies his identity. And then you're like, okay, let me take my pants off. There were discussions to create online social networks to find other own members. They're finally turning a profit. They're bringing in like in the beginning, I think it was $4.2 million in sales. Then it balloons up to $12 million in revenue. They get listed on the world's fastest growing startups by Inc. Magazine. It is everything that Nicole has ever worked for. Except Nicole confides in a high up executive. So she starts courting a bunch of potential CEOs for one taste. She's over it. She just wants the cash cow. She does not want to run this business. She's so sick of people. She stops oming, allegedly. She just like wants money. That's it. She says, I have a fear though. that if we have unlimited success there will be nothing to hold my ego in check Allegedly It is very difficult to say how many victims of one taste there are additionally a lot of former members even if they feel victimized by nicole they say it a very tricky place because they still believe in the power of ohm they still ohm every day they stand by the benefits of all of that without all of the trauma the coercion just ohm itself when they first started like that's what they hold on to. They just hate that Nicole ruined it for everyone and more people cannot be introduced to the benefits. A lot of OneTaste members, victims, can be categorized in a few different sections of how they were taken advantage of. Obviously, the biggest one is financial. One former member says that she paid $70,000 for courses and all she really got out of it was a copper necklace. That's what you get when you join a course, right? And the copper necklace reads, remember to remember. Another member says I was literally going to the food bank at $300 in my account and someone convinced me that I should take that money out and put it towards a class. It was apparently very frequent that Rachel, the head of sales, would just whip out her computer and help people apply for credit cards. Others argue that it's like the perfect blend of getting people into a state of easy manipulation. And they're just saying it's brain science. Like you have this whole weekend course where everybody's ohming. There is chemicals released in the brain from having the ohm sessions. You're just full of oxytocin. And so that you just end up racking up huge debts without even realizing what's happening. You lose touch with reality. And then it becomes very hard to get your money back. One former member says the deeper I went, the more courses I did, the more I worked for them. The closer I got to Nicole, I knew I was doing something that later would be very difficult to unravel. I knew I was losing control. In one taste. I just kept doing that again and again and again. One victim says, I'm so tired of hearing it that you were such a smart girl. How could you let that happen to you? How could you let it happen? They start off with love. Experts call it love bombing, bringing you into the fold, making you feel special and seen, cared for, valued. Then they pull it away, push you down to the very bottom, expel you from the community, take away your access to purpose and meaning, and even at times, take away your connection to God. We cling to this idea that we have control, that people who are abused and manipulated are somehow dumb or lesser, that they should have seen it coming. What I see now is those people who believe that, that this would never happen to them, are only grasping for control, clinging to this idea that they would never allow this to happen. Another victim says, if you believe that you are immune or that you wouldn't get sucked in, think again. I promise you under the right set of social pressures, you have no idea what you would do. And then you just have people that walked away feeling very confused about their intimate relations with other people and themselves, whether that be as extreme as feeling like they were coerced into having intimate relations with investors or people that they did not want for the benefit of Nicole and OneTaste, or people that were forced to recreate their SA trauma, or just people who were told that OM would help them. And then after OMing so many times with strangers, they just were left confused. I mean, even the guidance between Nicole and the OneTaste executives, it was so, in my opinion, reckless. I felt like they never had a clear idea. None of them had any sort of trauma training. Nobody knew what, honestly, I don't think any of them knew what they were talking about. And they're just, they switch up ideas nonstop. I can see how that could be very damaging for someone's idea of what it means to have relations with people. One former victim says, you don't realize until after what a damaging idea all this is. I feel really disgusted that I put myself through that. I feel much more confused about sex and the boundaries of my body, even though that's what they say it helps you cultivate. Another says it was about getting clients. She recalls Rachel telling her, really push it out, really give this man a great experience so that he wants to sign up for the coaching program. I felt really icky about it. One victim says it's like being in a cult. I mean, and it's dumb, but it's not because she says, quote, knowing how alcohol works doesn't prevent you from getting drunk. Another victim says, I never wanted to own with other people. I never wanted to have my body touched. It was all forced and my body feels filled with shame and disgust. I remember being told not to go to the hospital, that all the shaking, the vomiting, the weightlessness, the sickness was just an orgasm. It was me alchemizing trauma and pain from when I was younger, that if I just stuck with it, I would ascend to my next level of freedom and awakening. And Nicole, it seems like she made it, in my opinion, her life's mission to break people, but apparently she hated it. She went to dinner with a guy and she just blurts out that even though she's surrounded by people at her company, she feels very alone. That all one taste is, is filled with broken toys. Sure, she can make them do whatever she wants, but when she's not the one dictating their every decisions, all they do is disappoint her. Ellen Hewitt is the author of an amazing deep dive book on this case called Empire of Orgasm. She's also the journalist who wrote the original Bloomberg article takedown of One Taste. So she got calls of like, hey, can you cover this new like wellness company from SF? So she's like, okay, yeah, I'll cover it. She starts reaching out to former members and it's like just essay allegations stacking on top of each other. So this entire piece becomes the complete opposite of what she started with the idea with. She releases the article. One taste goes silent. And then a few of her sources start calling her, telling her, like, these are people that were in one taste that were like, I'm getting calls from FBI agents who want to talk. Oh. So it does seem like Ellen Hewitt is one of the reasons that this entire FBI investigation even gets started in the first place. Interesting. Yeah. Wow. She uncovered a lot of dirty, deplorable details about the business. She talked to so many victims. I mean, it's hard to say if the investigation is purely because of her, but like, it seems like it. It's shortly after. And shortly after that, Nicole hires Judah Engelmayer. This is a crisis public relations manager, a publicist, who only reps people in really shitty crises. Think Harvey Weinstein, Charlie Javis, the chase fraud. scam girl jp morgan yeah yeah and more recently diddy he repped diddy she hired judah engelmeyer so he wasn't like a big part of diddy's team but he also has i believe some internet beef with 50 cent because he was repping diddy at one point so you haven't come across no no and nicole de don and especially essentially if you hear word that netflix is making a bad documentary about your life you and your case you should probably hire judah and he also charges ten thousand dollars a month to thirty thousand dollars a month depending on you he also repped anna delvey yeah anna delvey said that judah was his specialty is crisis and he's very so what exactly do they do to these um people because their crisis management is not that impressive yeah i don't know exactly none of these people has any good pr during their crisis yeah diddy's crisis management was like emailing influencers and journalists at the trial being like meet me on the fourth floor during lunch and it's like i don't think people know this oh well okay yeah and it was just like weird stuff like it was very amateurish i was expecting some craziness yeah i was expecting like the publicists are running circles and we don't even know what's happening and like holy shit but it was just kind of dumb so i don't know maybe he's better maybe he's not because all these people have pretty trash reputations anyway so i don't know but anna delvey says he's very comforting to talk to i guess he's just like a therapist she says every time i would need someone to vent to he was the perfect person to speak to. He like knows New York. He's not wide-eyed. He's not impressionable. And it helps to have someone who is seasoned and used to dealing with the courts and the prison system. So I guess he's like a therapist. I don't know. Nicole hires him while she's still free. She hasn't been arrested yet. It's unclear if she's even going to be arrested because the feds are notoriously very quiet during their investigations. They like to say nothing. And Nicole gets word that a Netflix documentary about one taste is going to be released. So she decides that she's going to come back from being off the radar because this FBI investigation lasts like three years. Uh-huh. Okay. And we don't know half the time if they're still investigating because that's what the FBI does. Some people are saying, oh yeah, I got a call from the FBI. And then nothing happens for three years until they're indicted. It's just like, what's happening? Like no one's saying anything. But Netflix is already like... Netflix is like, oh my God, we got to get on this. There's word of that being in the works with Ellen Hewitt, also heavily featured in the documentary. She's coming out with her own book, which is now out Empire of Orgasm. There was a Vice Investigates documentary. It's like 15 minutes on this as well. So there's all these happenings and Nicole, no one knew where Nicole was. Was she in Bali? Was she in Italy? We didn't know where she was until finally she comes back into the US. And I think that she thought, well, the FBI hasn't said anything. So I think the investigation is slowing down. And once everyone starts finding out about one taste through the netflix doc they're gonna look up one taste so she should come up with some new platform to monetize is what i think that she was trying to do that's crazy so she thought she's clear from the fbi and this is actually a opportunity for her to blow up her business is my speculation i think that she thought all press is good press okay yeah so where was she Did we find out or no? It seems like either Bali or Italy. She comes back. Okay. And she goes on the stage with 200 people. I guess people were still in the beginning very adamant on supporting her. And she says, five years ago, I was hit by the bomb that's called canceled. Bro. No, I genuinely, I think as being someone on the internet, I think there is probably some real psychological effects that happen to someone when they are hated on by the entirety of the internet. Yes, I don't think it should be spoken about on the internet. Like I think you're just making it worse for yourself because there's like real life trauma happening. But she's like, the bomb canceled. It's very Ned Fulmer. I was thrown under my desk. I was vomiting and shaking and crying. I didn't know this kind of terror existed. This is the same woman who allegedly forced SA victims to recreate their SA. And she is talking about being canceled on the internet for her actions as if it is like the most heinous, despicable thing that could happen to a human being. But I had to show that you could go through something this horrific and come back without being bitter. I had to come back. She describes it like it's her duty to the world. She said, if you knew you had a kind of medicine, but that medicine was surrounded with fear and loathing and a hatred that jeopardized your life, what would you do? So she's saying like, I am so selfless. I have this meds. No one believes that everyone's scared of my medication, but I have to do this for you guys. One published article on the new Ares platform website, it reads that the media projecting the idea that one taste was a cult is quote, This is a very confused distortion of the community culture that One Taste was advocating. The idea of a guru or cult leader is a masculine ideal, assuming a formal hierarchy and not something Nicole Daydon ever sought or assumed in practice. While it is true and to be expected that Nicole was afforded all the same authority and deference that any CEO and company owner could count on to support her in the running of her business, she actively discouraged people from idealizing her. And they also went on this whole tirade on the website just talking about like the effects of being canceled. They would write, too often activism is used as a means to justify hate cloaked in a righteous context allowing us to diminish or belittle the other who hurt us Outrage is the amphetamine of the masses It keeps pumping us up but we get nothing done. It burns brightly, but destroys, leaving the territory it covers too scorched for anything to grow. How often have we let our conditions justify our addiction to resentment? True resolution, the kind that gratifies, is only found in intimacy. Nicole also believes that women are just love the idea of canceling other women. She writes in a self-published article, this is why canceling and shaming, particularly among women, has become so prevalent. This is Nicole's authored article. It's not because women are inherently cruel. It's because they have been trained to see themselves as lacking. In the absence of true power, they seek control in the only ways available, through social maneuvering, reputation assassination, an ideological purity test. A powerless woman cannot risk direct conflict. So she strikes under the radar. She engages in character assassination rather than outright battle. She convinces herself that she is upholding morality, when in reality, she is enforcing the very system that keeps her caged. A full woman gives, an empty woman takes. Everything, the culture, the gossip, the cancel culture, the backstacking, the ideological warfare stems from this fundamental disconnection. When women are unplugged from their power, they destroy. When they are plugged in, they create. It's that simple. But it's all pointless because June of 2023, 10 black SUVs pull up, 20 federal agents get out and a federal helicopter is swarming up above and Rachel and Nicole are arrested. The DOJ is charging them with forced labor conspiracy. If convicted, they're facing 20 years in federal prison. Immediately, Nicole and her team are defending her. Nicole's attorney states to the media Nicole Day Doan has always been about uplifting women Being a strong, smart, successful female entrepreneur Doesn't make you a sex cult leader It makes you a champion of female empowerment It makes you a target for false accusations They also call her a ceiling-shattering feminist Nicole in one case They go on to create these graphics That basically insinuated that Nicole and Rachel were part of a modern-day witch hunt So Nicole and Rachel and her team of female attorneys They would choreograph their outfits where they'd be in like pantsuits walking into the courthouse for their court hearings. And there were reports from reporters and journalists that they would have male members of their team. So like the attorneys, maybe it's a paralegal. Maybe it's another attorney on the team that's a male member, right? But once the cameras are out, they would go hide. So it just looks like a whole team of women coming into court to fight the witch hunt. So Nicole and Rachel, they're not tried together, right? They are. They are? Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. and they're repped by the same attorneys which is questionable for sure but I guess Rachel never turns on Nicole I'm sure in my opinion my speculation she probably was given opportunity to I don't see why the feds wouldn't yeah yeah yeah huh but fascinating meanwhile EDNY which is the eastern district of New York where they were tried in they say the defendants built a business on the backs of victims who gave up everything for them including their money their time, their bodies, their dignity, and ultimately their sanity. So what the hell are their attorneys saying? During the trial, a lot of Nicole's followers would be there and they would, they just were on a social media campaign against the victims. All the witnesses testifying in the trial, personal pictures of the victims testifying against Nicole would show up on social media and it was like a humiliation campaign against them. People that were still very loyal to Nicole would call them stupid liars, regretful narcissists, losers, imbeciles. They even released photos of victims wearing bikinis, photoshopping piles of poops over their face. These are the followers of the cult. Yeah, and they were all there. They're all like there in the public pews, I imagine. And Nicole was doing the same thing that I said Diddy was doing where he's like putting his hand on his heart and like, thank you, mouthing thank you to the followers. Yeah. even their attorneys have stated some crazy things like no matter what you think about one taste and what they were doing they chose it they knew what it was about the fact that they're regretting the actions that they took when they were younger is not evidence of a crime we are deeply disappointed in the verdict of the court case this case raised numerous novel and complex legal issues that will require review by the second circuit so the trial started may of last year in 2025, which is exactly when Diddy's trial started. And I think that's important to note because there was not a lot of people attending the trial or lots of coverage on the trial that made it to mainstream media. And Nicole has said that ultimately her being convicted of forced labor conspiracy and Diddy not being convicted of sex trafficking is the double standard. I think he should have been convicted in my personal opinion, but like, I don't think it's a double standard. I think that jury pool was just so insane. Nicole's attorneys included the very aggressive Jennifer Bongine, who repped Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, and Keith Raniere, who there's overlap because Diddy's Mark Agnifolo also repped Keith Raniere at one point. They did the same thing that a lot of the attorneys were doing in all these cases, that Nicole is not to blame for somebody else's choices. Ultimately, it comes back to, look at this really nice text message you sent Nicole though. Remember when you told Nicole you love her? I'm sorry, was there a gun to your head? Like those same dumb ass remarks, okay? They were quote, having a blast is what they would say. They would just berate the witnesses. Like there were no locks on the doors, right? You could leave the warehouse at any time, right? There were no guns, right? But you wanted to be around Nicole. Look at this. Can you read this message for us? Rachel's attorney even said at one point, they wanted it badly. These witnesses were running towards one taste, begging to be included, shouting from the rooftops about how much they loved it. being mean is not a crime. They were ultimately found guilty of conspiracy to commit forced labor. They face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison. The prosecutors want 15 to 20 years. The defense argues just two years should do. They still haven't been through sentencing, even though they were found guilty June of last year. And it's likely because it is very complicated. The feds are overreaching, I will say. So they are found guilty of conspiracy to commit forced labor, not forced labor. That's a separate charge. Conspiracy is easier to prove. Right? So conspiracy is just like you were trying. You tried. And like the jury just has to think that you were trying to do that. You don't necessarily have to do it. They just have to think that you were trying to do it. The prosecutors though, the 20 years is usually the sentencing for forced labor. Right, right, right. Not conspiracy. And what's typically for a conspiracy? Probably closer to what the defense is saying yeah so there's been a bit of a big argument there of nicole and rachel wanting to appeal they've stated that we are deep their attorneys have stated we're deeply disappointed in today's verdict we maintain our clients innocence and look forward to continuing this fight on appeal the case has raised numerous novel and complex legal issues that will require review we find inspiration in our clients nicole and rachel who have shown incredible strength throughout this entire process this is my frustration with these like cases right same thing with Diddy's case I feel like the legal system doesn't protect emotional manipulation right when someone is in a very weak point and you can clear see a lot of things it's hard to prove in court because you know a lot of things happens in people's mind and but on in text message they say things like I love you right but the context is you know she's not saying I love you out of I love you. Yeah. So that's why, you know, they get charged with such small sentences, but the damage on all these victims is like lifelong. Yeah. So that's like really hard. And I guess it all based on the jury as well, like how much they know about, you know, a victim's mentality. And right. So that's like really frustrating to hear. I forgot. I saw like a comment that was left on one of the, I think it was one of the Diddy videos, but it's very interesting. It's like, I think a lot of us, because maybe we're younger, we think that when there is a jury pool, it's going to be a bunch of people like you and me. But then they're like, you got to think of it as like the worst uncle that shows up to Thanksgiving, whose views you do not absolutely align with at all. And then that's more like the average jury pool for a lot of cases, especially SA or anything to do with a woman being the victim. so it just seems like I don't know why people get so swayed by these dumb text messages but if that appeal doesn't work it's not over for Nicole and Rachel it seems like they are heavily courting right wing media outlets I think that Nicole and Rachel could potentially be going for a presidential pardon by the end of Trump's second term yeah she's been going around saying some crazy things like even though I grew up radically liberal I found myself joyously side by side with conservatives fighting together in a great political battle. It seems like she is connecting with someone who is connected to the pardons are, which is on Trump's team that does a lot of the pardons. It's unclear if that's her goal. It would make sense, but I don't know. So I guess that's what like Glenn Maxwell. Yeah. Was trying to do, right? Yeah. So is she and Rachel in the same jail then? Yeah, seems like it. They're both at MDC Brooklyn, where Ghislaine is no longer at MDC Brooklyn. So I guess they cannot be buddy buddies. I wondered if they own together. Is that defamatory? No. I do wonder if they own together. But that's crazy that they still put them together then. Yeah. Wow. But that video of Ghislaine in jail did come out. Remember? With the recent Epstein files. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. She looks really bored, that one. Yeah, yeah. But I do think like it's kind of sick because I think certain people hate being in jail. I think Ghislaine Maxwell hates it. I think Diddy hates it. I think all these people hate it. Nicole, I think she hates it. But I think if she gets out, she's going to have like a whole martyr phase. I think so. And it's going to be heinous. I just hope nobody falls for it. Unbelievable. That means once the sentence is happening, she could literally be released right away if it's only a couple years right time served she's out this year next year yeah and see what's crazy is like i think when we talk about it like this it's whatever no one's gonna fall for it right but ellen hewitt the author of empire of orgasm and she's the one that wrote the original takedown article if anyone she's like nicole's biggest op or at least from nicole's perspective so she was there during the trial and nicole made eye contact with her and a lot of times you would think that the defendant would just look away or like look stinky face she said that a lot of the other one taste executives were looking at her like you ruined our lives and nicole says hi to her walks up to her and says you and i share a strange intimacy and how did she describe her feelings or just like very taken aback that she would even confront Ellen in that situation, but also probably like the way she did it was not mean. Surface level. It's almost like it's hard because I think when people do things you don't expect them to do, there is a level of charisma that might be attached to it because you're like, oh, that I don't think I could do that. That's that's how she, you know, gets. Yeah. Manipulates so many people. Right. So, I mean, I just feel like if she's out, she's going to be a danger to a lot of people, a lot of vulnerable people, too. Ultimately, it is unclear what exactly Nicole's problem was, why she did any of this. No one really knows. I mean, I do think it's money, but is it really money? One member says, I think dissatisfaction seemed to drive Nicole. It was never, ever, ever good enough. And that is the final part of One Taste. What do you think about this whole case? Let me know in the comments. What do you think she should be sentenced to? And let me know your thoughts and I will see you in the next one. Bye.