{"id":180346,"date":"2026-03-31T00:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T00:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180346\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T00:53:10","slug":"founder-of-orgasmic-meditation-company-gets-9-years-in-prison-in-forced-labor-case-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/180346\/","title":{"rendered":"Founder of \u2018orgasmic meditation\u2019 company gets 9 years in prison in forced labor case"},"content":{"rendered":"

By PHILIP MARCELO<\/p>\n

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The leader of a sex-focused women\u2019s wellness company that\u00a0promoted \u201corgasmic meditation\u201d<\/a> was sentenced Monday to nine years in federal prison for a scheme that a judge said exploited vulnerable women and coerced them into performing sex acts with the company\u2019s clients and investors.<\/p>\n

Nicole Daedone, co-founder of OneTaste Inc., was also ordered to forfeit $12 million, and seven victims were awarded roughly $890,000 in restitution, federal prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoercion disguised as wellness or empowerment is still exploitation and it is a crime that causes harm to vulnerable victims,\u201d Joseph Nocella, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Daedone declined to speak in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday, but one victim told the judge that she had believed in Daedone\u2019s \u201cso-called feminist mission\u201d only to be \u201cleft with significant financial damages and emotional harm,\u201d the Daily News\u00a0reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reality, I fell into Nicole\u2019s trap,\u201d the woman said, according to the newspaper. \u201cI was the perfect target.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. District Court Judge Diane Gujarati, in handing down her sentence, said Daedone didn\u2019t appear remorseful as more than two dozen supporters turned out for the packed hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat she was doing wasn\u2019t about enlightenment or operating in a different dimension,\u201d the judge said,\u00a0according to<\/a>\u00a0The New York Times. \u201cIt was criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term for Daedone, arguing in presentencing court filings that her scheme left \u201cscores of victims financially, emotionally and psychologically scarred.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDaedone 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,\u201d prosecutors wrote.<\/p>\n

Her lawyers argued that imposing a lengthy imprisonment would be \u201cbonkers\u201d as they sought a term of around two years for Daedone.<\/p>\n

They noted that the 58-year-old New York resident had no prior criminal record and that more than 200 people had submitted letters to the court \u201cattesting to her character, her generosity, and her positive influence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has lived an uncommon and impactful life, and she is deeply respected by people from all walks of life, including many entirely unconnected to OneTaste,\u201d the defense lawyers wrote in their sentencing memo.<\/p>\n

Among those who penned letters of support was Van Jones, a CNN correspondent and former adviser to President Barack Obama. He described Daedone as \u201ca woman of uncommon wisdom, grace and moral courage\u201d who has \u201cdedicated her life to helping others find healing, empowerment and a deeper sense of human connection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actor Richard Schiff, of the television series \u201cThe West Wing,\u201d wrote that Daedone was deserving of the court\u2019s leniency because she has \u201cspent her life trying to bring compassion, awareness, and honesty to a part of human experience that is often shamed or misunderstood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daedone\u2019s lawyers said after the sentencing that they\u2019re focused on appealing her conviction and that she\u2019s been teaching meditation to other inmates at the federal detention center in Brooklyn since her conviction last June on a charge of forced labor conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Prominent attorney Alan Dershowitz has said he\u2019ll also\u00a0seek a pardon<\/a>\u00a0from President Donald Trump for Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, the company\u2019s former sales director.<\/p>\n

Cherwitz was sentenced to six and a half years on Monday for her role in the scheme. Her lawyers didn\u2019t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n

During the roughly one-month trial, prosecutors said the two women ran a yearslong scheme that groomed adherents \u2014 many of them victims of sexual trauma \u2014 to do their bidding.<\/p>\n

They said Daedone and Cherwitz, 45, used economic, sexual and psychological abuse, intimidation and indoctrination to force OneTaste members into sexual acts they found uncomfortable or repulsive, such as having sex with prospective investors or clients.<\/p>\n

The two told followers the questionable acts were necessary in order to obtain \u201cfreedom\u201d and \u201cenlightenment,\u201d and to demonstrate their commitment to the company\u2019s principles.<\/p>\n

One of Daedone\u2019s lawyers, meanwhile, cast her as a \u201cceiling-shattering feminist entrepreneur\u201d who created a unique business centered on women\u2019s sexuality and empowerment.<\/p>\n

Daedone co-founded OneTaste in San Francisco in 2004 as a sort of self-help commune that viewed female orgasms as key to sexual and psychological wellness and interpersonal connection.<\/p>\n

A centerpiece was \u201corgasmic meditation,\u201d or \u201cOM,\u201d which was carried out by men manually stimulating women in a group setting.<\/p>\n

The company enjoyed glowing media coverage in the 2010s as a cutting-edge enterprise that prioritized women\u2019s sexual pleasure, and quickly opened outposts from Los Angeles to London.<\/p>\n

Daedone sold her stake in the company in 2017 for $12 million \u2014 a year before OneTaste\u2019s marketing and labor practices came under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s current owners maintain its work has been misconstrued and that the charges against its former executives were unjustified.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By PHILIP MARCELO NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The leader of a sex-focused women\u2019s wellness company that\u00a0promoted \u201corgasmic meditation\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,72714,63,72825,72826],"class_list":{"0":"post-180346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn","8":"tag-brooklyn","9":"tag-brooklyn-headlines","10":"tag-brooklyn-news","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nicole-daedone","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-onetaste-inc","16":"tag-orgasmic-meditation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}