Nicole Daedone, the 57-year-old co-founder and former CEO of the "sexual wellness" company OneTaste, was sentenced on Monday, March 30, 2026, to nine years in federal prison following her conviction on forced labor conspiracy charges. U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen of the Eastern District of New York also ordered Daedone to forfeit $12 million, the exact sum she received from the 2017 sale of her stake in the company. Prosecutors argued those funds were the direct proceeds of a criminal scheme built on psychological manipulation, debt bondage, and economic coercion spanning more than a decade.
How OneTaste Turned "Wellness" Into a Labor Exploitation Operation
Founded in 2004, OneTaste marketed itself publicly as a female-empowerment health startup built around a proprietary practice called "orgasmic meditation" (OM). Federal investigators and former members described something categorically different: a closed community engineered to strip followers of financial independence and psychological autonomy.
Prosecutors established three interlocking mechanisms at trial:
- Targeting vulnerability: Daedone specifically recruited individuals with documented histories of trauma or sexual abuse, positioning OM sessions and high-cost retreats as pathways to "healing." The targeting was deliberate, selecting people whose need for belonging made them more susceptible to coercive control.
- The labor loop: Members were pressured into taking on six-figure debt to pay for "intensive" courses priced as high as $100,000. To service those debts, they were directed to work for OneTaste for little or no compensation, performing manual labor, administrative tasks, and active recruiting of new members who would then enter the same cycle.
- Psychological coercion: Victims testified that Daedone employed shaming and isolation techniques to maintain control. Members lived in communal housing under constant monitoring, and those who expressed doubt were publicly humiliated in group settings designed to reinforce dependency.
The $12 Million Forfeiture | Proceeds of a Criminal Enterprise
The financial penalty carries particular weight. The $12 million forfeiture corresponds precisely to what Daedone pocketed when she sold her OneTaste stake in 2017, the year the company reached peak commercial visibility before a Bloomberg Businessweek exposé in 2018 prompted an FBI investigation. The government's position, accepted by Judge Chen, was that those sale proceeds were inseparable from the forced labor infrastructure that generated OneTaste's revenue and valuation.
Restitution for individual victims has not yet been formally calculated and is expected to be determined in a follow-on proceeding. The government identified multiple "Jane Does" during trial, several of whom delivered victim impact statements at sentencing describing financial devastation and lasting psychological harm.
Co-Defendant Rachel Cherwitz | Sentencing Pending
Former OneTaste executive Rachel Cherwitz, who pleaded guilty to related charges in 2025, is scheduled for sentencing later this spring. Cherwitz's cooperation with prosecutors was a central element of the government's case against Daedone. The outcome of Cherwitz's sentencing will likely reflect the degree to which her testimony and evidence sharing were credited by the court.
The Rebrand That Did Not Save the Organization
Following the Bloomberg exposé and subsequent federal scrutiny, OneTaste attempted to distance itself from the controversy by rebranding as the "Institute of OM." That pivot did not halt the investigation. Federal prosecutors treated the rebrand as a continuation of the same enterprise, and the conviction and sentencing effectively close the chapter on the organization's operational influence. No successor entity has publicly announced continued operations under the OM framework.
What the Prosecution Said
"This wasn't wellness; it was a sophisticated labor mill that turned human connection into a commodity and human beings into tools for profit."
The case is among the most high-profile forced labor convictions involving a wellness or self-help organization in U.S. history, and legal observers expect it to be cited in future prosecutions involving multi-level recruitment structures and debt-financed "personal development" programs.
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