Nicole Daedone, founder and former chief executive of sexual wellness company OneTaste, was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for her role in a forced labor conspiracy, while former head of sales Rachel Cherwitz received a 78-month sentence, federal prosecutors announced.
Both women were convicted in June 2025 after a five-week trial in Brooklyn federal court. U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati also imposed a $12 million forfeiture money judgment against Daedone and ordered $887,877.64 in restitution to seven victims.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. of the Eastern District of New York said the case exposed “a decade-long scheme” in which the defendants used “psychological, emotional, and financial coercion” to control victims and extract labor and services. He emphasized that coercion “disguised as wellness or empowerment” is still criminal exploitation that causes lasting harm. FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said the defendants “preyed on vulnerable women,” subjecting them to psychological manipulation and sexual abuse to obtain unpaid or underpaid labor and services for their personal and financial benefit.
Prosecutors said OneTaste, founded in 2004 and based in San Francisco, marketed itself as a sexual wellness education company offering courses in “orgasmic meditation,” a practice involving manual genital stimulation. The company operated in multiple cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Denver, Austin, and London, and generated revenue through classes, coaching, events, and other sexual practice courses.
According to evidence presented at trial, Daedone and Cherwitz ran the scheme from approximately 2006 through May 2018, targeting young women seeking healing from trauma and personal growth. Prosecutors said the defendants used manipulative tactics to foster emotional and psychological dependence, including encouraging members to take on debt to pay for expensive courses, subjecting them to constant surveillance in communal living environments, collecting sensitive personal information about their trauma and sexual histories, depriving them of sleep, and subjecting them to sexual abuse.
Once members were financially and emotionally entangled, prosecutors said they were compelled to work long hours—often seven days a week—with little or no pay. The work included both manual labor and sexual services. Witnesses testified that women were coerced into sexual acts with the company’s investors, prospective investors, clients, and employees to benefit the business financially. Three witnesses also described being forced into roles as “handlers” for OneTaste’s initial investor—who was also Daedone’s boyfriend—requiring them to live with him and perform domestic and sexual labor under his direction.
Prosecutors said victims complied under threats of termination, demotion, ostracism, and financial or spiritual harm. In 2017, Daedone sold OneTaste for $12 million—a company the government argued was built on coerced and unpaid or substantially underpaid labor.
The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Human Trafficking and Civil Rights Section.
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