Nearly 15 years ago, Nicole Daedone was a rising star among the in-crowd of the burgeoning wellness-spirituality-whatever space. The founder of OneTaste, a business built around the practice of “orgasmic meditation,” she graced a San Francisco TED Talk stage to extol the virtues of what she called slow sex. There was also a fluffy Times story and fawning endorsement on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop podcast for bringing about a new form of female empowerment. Alas, times change. These days, Daedone is facing prosecution for allegedly running a slavery ring, and orchestrating one of the most heinous conspiracies imaginable.

Along with OneTaste sales executive Rachel Cherwitz, Daedone stands accused of preying on individuals scarred by sexual trauma and enticing them into costly classes and five-figure debts. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn—the same district that won sex crimes cases against R. Kelly and NXIVM’s Keith Raniere—argue that these students were then cut off from the outside world, monitored incessantly, and exploited as cheap labor, their dignity stripped bare as they were instructed to engage in intimate acts with potential clients and investors. (OneTaste has called this characterization “outrageous.”)