Nicole Daedone, the 58-year-old founder of the San Francisco-based "orgasmic meditation" company OneTaste, was sentenced Monday to nine years in federal prison after a Brooklyn jury convicted her of grooming workers and members to have sex with clients and investors. Judge Diane Gujarati ordered Daedone to forfeit $12 million and pay roughly $890,000 in restitution to seven victims, the New York Post reported.
Former head of sales Rachel Cherwitz was sentenced Monday afternoon to six and a half years for her role in the same conspiracy. Nine former OneTaste employees took the stand during trial. Their testimony painted a picture of a company that operated like a cult, one where workers were manipulated into performing sexual acts and forced to labor for little to no pay for more than a decade.
Federal prosecutors had asked for 20 years. They got less than half. But the sentence Gujarati handed down still carries a blunt message: wrap exploitation in the language of wellness and empowerment, and a federal court will still call it what it is.
Gujarati left no room for the spiritual gloss that OneTaste and its defenders tried to apply. She told the courtroom that Daedone "took actions that stripped victims of their dignity" and that "she does not appear to be remorseful."
Then she went further, dismantling the company's carefully cultivated mystique:
"What she was doing wasn't about enlightenment or operating in a different dimension. It wasn't a game or a show. It wasn't Harry Potter or the Matrix. It was criminal."
When given the chance to address the court before sentencing, Daedone, standing in a beige jail jumpsuit, declined. "No, thank you," she said. That was it.
The contrast between a defendant who had nothing to say and a courtroom full of people living with the consequences of her decisions told its own story. The broader pattern of powerful figures facing accountability for the exploitation of vulnerable people has become a recurring theme in recent years, as seen in Ghislaine Maxwell's refusal to testify before House Oversight without a clemency deal.
Federal prosecutors laid out the mechanics of Daedone's operation in their sentencing request. They accused her of recruiting victims who had suffered past traumas by claiming she could help fix their sexual suffering. Once inside the organization, those recruits found something very different from healing.
Prosecutors said Daedone and Cherwitz used economic pressure, psychological manipulation, intimidation, and sexual coercion to force followers into sex acts they found uncomfortable or repulsive, including with prospective investors or clients, the Washington Times reported.
One detail from the prosecution's filing stands out for its sheer cruelty. Prosecutors said the company enlisted an employee identified as a rape victim to "reenact" the incident before a crowd for a so-called taboo course. The employee performed oral sex on a partner while being told "I love you", the same words her real rapist had used.
That is not therapy. That is not wellness. That is the systematic re-traumatization of a vulnerable person for the benefit of a business.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella put it plainly after the sentencing, as AP News reported:
"Coercion disguised as wellness or empowerment is still exploitation and it is a crime that causes harm to vulnerable victims."
Prosecutors framed the entire enterprise in a single line from their court filing: "Hers was a crime of exploitation masquerading as empowerment."
One former employee, identified only as Michal, who asked that her last name not be published, told the court that her time at OneTaste left her in financial ruin and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I trusted Nicole... in reality, I fell into Nicole's trap. I was a perfect target because I was a vulnerable woman looking to improve my life."
Michal's account was not unique. Nine former employees testified during the trial. They described years of coercion, manipulation, and unpaid or barely paid labor, all wrapped in the language of personal growth and sexual liberation. The financial harm alone stretched across more than a decade.
The case of OneTaste joins a broader pattern of powerful individuals and networks exploiting the vulnerable while shielding themselves behind wealth and influence. Ongoing investigations into the Epstein case have raised similar questions about how long such operations can persist before anyone is held to account.
Daedone's lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean, pushed back on the severity of the case. She noted that none of the accusers described being the victim of physical violence, and that Daedone was charged and convicted only of forced labor conspiracy, not sex trafficking or sexual assault.
"There are still many people today who see Nicole Daedone as a transformative force."
That claim had some backing, at least on paper. More than 200 people submitted letters to the court before sentencing. More than two dozen members of OneTaste attended the hearing.
Among the letter-writers was Van Jones, the CNN correspondent and former adviser to President Barack Obama, who described Daedone as "a woman of uncommon wisdom, grace and moral courage." The company had also once gained an endorsement from Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop website.
Celebrity endorsements do not age well when a federal jury returns a guilty verdict. And the fact that prominent media figures and lifestyle brands lent their credibility to OneTaste raises its own uncomfortable questions about the vetting standards of the wellness industry. Congressional scrutiny of powerful networks that evade accountability has intensified in recent years, as reflected in the House panel's push for contempt charges in the Epstein investigation.
OneTaste has since been rebranded as the Institute of OM. Its current CEO, Anjuli Ayer, attended the sentencing hearing and spoke to reporters outside the courthouse.
"This is a terrifying day for freedom. Once persuasion becomes a crime, anyone can be a defendant, and anyone can be a victim. We must correct the record or everyone will suffer."
Ayer's framing, that the conviction threatens free speech and persuasion, is worth examining. A federal jury heard weeks of testimony from nine former employees. It weighed the evidence. It convicted. A judge reviewed the record and imposed a substantial sentence along with $12 million in forfeiture and nearly $900,000 in restitution. Calling that outcome a threat to "freedom" is a remarkable repackaging of a forced labor conviction.
Bonjean's narrower legal point, that the conviction was for forced labor conspiracy, not sex trafficking, is technically accurate. But the distinction offers cold comfort to the women who testified that they were coerced into sexual acts with clients and investors, worked for years without real pay, and emerged with PTSD and shattered finances.
The wellness industry has long operated in a gray zone where charismatic leaders can build enormous followings with minimal oversight. OneTaste thrived in that space. It attracted celebrity endorsements, media coverage, and paying members. The growing public demand for accountability when powerful figures face scrutiny for their conduct reflects a broader shift in how these cases are treated.
Nine years is less than the 20 prosecutors sought. But it is a serious federal sentence for a forced labor conspiracy conviction. Combined with $12 million in forfeiture and restitution to seven victims totaling about $890,000, the financial consequences are substantial.
Cherwitz's six-and-a-half-year sentence signals that the court viewed the former sales director as more than a passive participant. Former employees testified that both women ran the business like a cult and manipulated workers into performing sexual acts.
Daedone sold OneTaste at some point before her conviction, and the company continues to operate under its new name. The question of whether the organization's culture has actually changed, or merely its branding, remains open.
Judge Gujarati's language at sentencing left little ambiguity about how the court viewed the operation. She rejected every attempt to cast the enterprise as spiritual practice, alternative therapy, or anything other than what the jury found it to be: a criminal conspiracy that stripped vulnerable people of their dignity and their labor.
When exploitation wears the mask of enlightenment, the people who pay the price are always the ones who showed up looking for help. The court, at least, saw through it.
