Nicole Daedone, founder and former Chief Executive Officer of OneTaste, Inc., was sentenced on Mar. 30 to nine years in prison by United States District Judge Diane Gujarati in Brooklyn federal court for her role in a forced labor conspiracy. Rachel Cherwitz, the company’s former Head of Sales, received a sentence of 78 months for her involvement. Both were convicted by a federal jury in June 2025 following a five-week trial. The court also imposed a $12 million forfeiture money judgment against Daedone and awarded nearly $888,000 in restitution to seven victims.
The sentencing underscores the consequences of coercive practices within organizations claiming to promote wellness or empowerment. According to United States Attorney Joseph Nocella, Jr., “This case exposed a decade-long scheme in which the defendants used psychological, emotional, and financial coercion to control their victims and extract labor and services for their own benefit.” Nocella said that “coercion disguised as wellness or empowerment is still exploitation and it is a crime that causes harm to vulnerable victims.” He added that combining forced labor with sexual exploitation caused trauma extending beyond lost wages or long hours.
Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr. of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said: “For decades, Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz preyed on vulnerable women, coercing them into a calculated forced labor conspiracy. These defendants subjected their victims to repeated psychological manipulation and sexual abuse to obtain unpaid or underpaid labor and services for their personal and financial benefit. The FBI is committed to holding accountable those who traffic in human labor and exploit others for profit. We thank the victims for their courage in coming forward.”
OneTaste operated as a privately held company co-founded by Daedone in 2004 with its main office based in San Francisco but active across several U.S cities including New York as well as London. The company offered courses on so-called “orgasmic meditation” along with other sexual practices purportedly aimed at healing past trauma but was found instead to have used abusive tactics such as encouraging debt accrual among members seeking spiritual growth, subjecting them to surveillance and sleep deprivation, collecting sensitive information about prior traumas, as well as demanding manual labor or sexual acts under threat.
According to the official website, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York supports community outreach efforts alongside victim assistance programs while handling both criminal prosecutions and civil matters representation throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Nassau County, and Suffolk County.
Breon Peace currently leads this office which maintains locations both in Brooklyn and Central Islip according to its official website. As noted online,the office operates as the designated federal prosecutor’s office covering these areas.
