Founder of ‘orgasmic meditation’ company gets 9 years in prison in forced labour case

Nicole Daedone, center, founder and former CEO of OneTaste, departs Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday, June 13, 2023 in New York.

NEW YORK — The leader of a sex-focused women’s wellness company that promoted “orgasmic meditation” 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’s clients and investors.

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

“Coercion disguised as wellness or empowerment is still exploitation and it is a crime that causes harm to vulnerable victims,” Joseph Nocella, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement.

Daedone declined to speak in federal court in Brooklyn on Monday, but one victim told the judge that she had believed in Daedone’s “so-called feminist mission” only to be “left with significant financial damages and emotional harm,” the Daily News reports.

“In reality, I fell into Nicole’s trap,” the woman said, according to the newspaper. “I was the perfect target.”

U.S. District Court Judge Diane Gujarati, in handing down her sentence, said Daedone didn’t appear remorseful as more than two dozen supporters turned out for the packed hearing.

“What she was doing wasn’t about enlightenment or operating in a different dimension,” the judge said, according to The New York Times. “It was criminal.”

Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison term for Daedone, arguing in presentencing court filings that her scheme left “scores of victims financially, emotionally and psychologically scarred.”

“Daedone 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,” prosecutors wrote.

Her lawyers argued that imposing a lengthy imprisonment would be “bonkers” as they sought a term of around two years for Daedone.

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 “attesting to her character, her generosity, and her positive influence.”

“She 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,” the defense lawyers wrote in their sentencing memo.

Among those who penned letters of support was Van Jones, a CNN correspondent and former adviser to President Barack Obama. He described Daedone as “a woman of uncommon wisdom, grace and moral courage” who has “dedicated her life to helping others find healing, empowerment and a deeper sense of human connection.”

Actor Richard Schiff, of the television series “The West Wing,” wrote that Daedone was deserving of the court’s leniency because she has “spent her life trying to bring compassion, awareness, and honesty to a part of human experience that is often shamed or misunderstood.”

Daedone’s lawyers said after the sentencing that they’re focused on appealing her conviction and that she’s been teaching meditation to other inmates at the federal detention centre in Brooklyn since her conviction last June on a charge of forced labor conspiracy.

Prominent attorney Alan Dershowitz has said he’ll also seek a pardon from President Donald Trump for Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, the company’s former sales director.

Cherwitz was sentenced to six and a half years on Monday for her role in the scheme. Her lawyers didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

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

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.

The two told followers the questionable acts were necessary in order to obtain “freedom” and “enlightenment,” and to demonstrate their commitment to the company’s principles.

One of Daedone’s lawyers, meanwhile, cast her as a “ceiling-shattering feminist entrepreneur” who created a unique business centreed on women’s sexuality and empowerment.

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.

A centrepiece was “orgasmic meditation,” or “OM,” which was carried out by men manually stimulating women in a group setting.

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

Daedone sold her stake in the company in 2017 for $12 million -- a year before OneTaste’s marketing and labor practices came under scrutiny.

The company’s current owners maintain its work has been misconstrued and that the charges against its former executives were unjustified.

Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press