OneTaste Founder Nicole Daedone Gets Nine Years for Forced Labor Conspiracy

Two decades after Nicole Daedone co-founded OneTaste inside a communal SoMa loft and later ran a second San Francisco space at 39 Fell Street, a federal judge in Brooklyn sentenced her Monday to nine years in prison for orchestrating a forced labor conspiracy that prosecutors say exploited women for unpaid work and sexual services under the guise of wellness.

The Eastern District of New York announced the sentence on March 30, roughly nine months after a federal jury convicted Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste's former head of sales, of using psychological manipulation, financial pressure and sexual coercion to trap members in the scheme. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year term, arguing in court filings that Daedone's scheme left "scores of victims financially, emotionally and psychologically scarred."

Beyond the prison sentence, the court ordered Daedone to forfeit $12 million, an amount corresponding to what she received when she sold OneTaste in 2017, and to pay $887,877.64 in restitution to seven identified victims. Cherwitz, 45, received 78 months. Prosecutors and FBI officials described the case as exposing a decade-long scheme.

OneTaste began in 2004 and was co-founded in San Francisco by Robert Kandell and Nicole Daedone. It originally operated two communal-style urban retreat centers, one in San Francisco's SoMa District and another in Lower Manhattan, before spreading to Los Angeles, Denver, Austin and London. The Department of Justice noted that San Francisco remained the organization's principal place of business throughout its expansion. They said Daedone and Cherwitz 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.

U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr., whose office brought the case, said the verdict and sentence should signal that coercion disguised as self-help or spiritual practice is criminal exploitation. Trial testimony from survivors described long-term psychological damage prosecutors said extended well beyond lost wages.

The legal fallout is unlikely to end here. Attorneys for Daedone and Cherwitz say they plan to appeal their convictions after sentencing. Attorney Alan Dershowitz told NBC News he plans to advocate for them and ask President Donald Trump to pardon them, calling the case "a miscarriage of justice." Restitution collection and potential civil litigation from affected members remain open fronts.

For San Francisco, a city with a sprawling wellness and personal-development sector, the conviction is the rare instance of federal forced-labor statutes applied to a for-profit organization that obscured exploitation behind therapeutic framing. Advocates who work with survivors of coercive groups say the patterns prosecutors outlined in the OneTaste case, including debt tied to coaching programs, isolation from outside relationships and escalating demands for sexual compliance, appear across communal wellness organizations and are frequently misread as voluntary participation.

People who believe they experienced coercion, labor exploitation or abuse within a wellness or self-help organization can report concerns to the FBI's San Francisco field office or contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. The San Francisco District Attorney's Victim Services Division also accepts complaints and can connect survivors with local support.