Nicole Daedone, co-founder of OneTaste, has been sentenced to nine years in U.S. federal prison for forced labor after prosecutors said she led a coercive scheme masked as a women’s wellness movement.
The leader of a sex-focused women’s wellness company that promoted “orgasmic meditation” has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison on forced labor charges, according to U.S. prosecutors. Nicole Daedone, co-founder of OneTaste, was also ordered to forfeit $12 million — the amount she received from selling her stake in the California-based company. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year sentence, arguing in court filings that her actions left “scores of victims financially, emotionally and psychologically scarred.”
During the roughly one-month trial, prosecutors said Daedone and her co-accused, Rachel Cherwitz, orchestrated a yearslong scheme that groomed vulnerable followers, including victims of sexual trauma, to carry out their directives. “Daedone and her co-conspirators exercised control through economic pressure, psychological manipulation, physical exhaustion and emotional degradation, leaving behind a trail of financial ruin and lasting trauma,” prosecutors wrote. They alleged the women used abuse, intimidation and indoctrination to compel members into sexual acts they found uncomfortable, presenting such acts as necessary for “freedom” and “enlightenment.”
Defense lawyers argued for a lighter sentence of about two years, calling a lengthy prison term “bonkers” and highlighting Daedone’s lack of prior criminal record and support from more than 200 individuals. Among them were Van Jones, who described her as “a woman of uncommon wisdom, grace and moral courage,” and Richard Schiff, who said she had “spent her life trying to bring compassion, awareness, and honesty to a part of human experience that is often shamed or misunderstood.” Daedone founded OneTaste in 2004 in San Francisco, building it into a global enterprise before selling her stake in 2017, a year before its practices came under scrutiny.
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