Nicole Daedone

Nonprofits

According to author Ellen Huet, Daedone has serially employed a tactic since her time with Welcomed Consensus: using nonprofits for self-serving purposes. Huet describes Daedone and associates founding the organization Fill Up America, ostensibly to collect excess food and clothing from businesses in San Francisco to distribute to the poor. Volunteers told Huet that Daedone and her friends kept prime goods for themselves.

IRS records indicate that Fill Up America organization obtained tax-exempt status and employer identification number (EIN) in 2002. Copies of Form 990 records hosted by ProPublica indicate Fill Up America changed names several times since: in the 2013 tax year its name changed to "OneTaste Foundation"; its website (listed on tax records) featured OneTaste curriculum on orgasm and Orgasmic Meditation. In its 2019 filing the name was listed as "Love to Table"; its website did not list a connection to OneTaste.

As of 2026, the name of the organization tied to the employer identification number is "Unconditional Freedom", which it began using in the 2022 tax year. According to Huet, the organization "teaches spirituality and mindfulness in two California prisons, with a mission statement of “turning prisons into monasteries", but mainly promotes materials authored by Daedone. In October 2022, MendoFever reported that Mendocino County Sheriff discontinued an Unconditional Freedom program at the county jail with after discovering its links to OneTaste.

Pursuit of executive clemency

In remarks to the New York Times, Daedone's lawyer Jennifer Bonjean has stated that she would "exhaust all avenues to get my client released" and "would of course be hopeful the [Trump] administration would look at the case."

Attorney Alan Dershowitz told NBC News that he is lobbying the Trump administration to pardon Daedone.

A June 29, 2026 report in The Atlantic suggested that Trump administration's "Pardon Czar" Alice Marie Johnson placed Daedone on a proposed list of candidates for a mass pardon to coincide with the United States Semiquincentennial. Daedone was not pardoned, and remains an inmate listed by the Bureau of Prisons.

Pretrial motions

In the pretrial phase, the defense claimed that FBI Special Agent Elliot McGinnis, who reportedly led the investigation for five years, undermined the case's integrity by advising witnesses to destroy evidence, mishandling privileged materials, and presenting misleading information in sworn affidavits. However, presiding Judge Diane Gujarati denied a motion to dismiss, ruling that the defense had not sufficiently demonstrated bad faith or that these issues prejudiced the prosecution's case, but did push back the trial, initially scheduled for January 13, 2025 to May 5, 2025.

On March 17, 2025, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York announced that they would not use a key witness's journals in the case. The witness had falsely presented them as written about the time she was a OneTaste member, but instead had "physically copied the relevant portion of the Handwritten Journals after typing the Typewritten Journals".

Trial

Allegations against the leaders of OneTaste at trial are recapitulated in a government sentencing memorandum.[H]einous acts of manipulation, coercion and exploitation that Daedone or her co-conspirators committed were the following:

directing victims to serve as “handlers” for OneTaste’s main investor, Reese Jones, including cooking for him, sexually servicing him each day and performing other labor;

coercing victims to allow OneTaste clients and prospective customers to stroke their clitorises;

compelling victims to stroke OneTaste clients and prospective customers’ penises, and to have sex with them;

directing that victims incur massive debt to pay for OneTaste courses and to continue to remain part of the OneTaste community; and

directing victims to work around-the-clock – including menial and sexual labor – for little or no pay.

The victims performed these acts, and others, out of fear of serious harm, including physical, psychological and financial harm. Indeed, those who resisted were punished with negative employment consequences, shunning, sexual abuse and threats of physical violence, among other things. Nearly every trial witness described how Daedone and her coconspirators engaged in a campaign of indoctrination, grooming, isolation, manipulation, use of past trauma, monitoring, public shaming, relationship disruption, sexual abuse, physical exhaustion and financial harm to force their victims’ labor.The trial started on May 5, 2025. During the trial, former CTO Christopher Hubbard described OneTaste as a "sex cult", and stated that he and Daedone arranged BDSM activities for entrepreneur Reese Jones of Singularity University, involving Jones "either giving or receiving some form of sexual activity" with OneTaste members. The government notes that from 2007 and through 2011, Jones invested at least $800,000 in the company, and also subsidized Daedone's lifestyle.

A video entered into evidence suggesting Daedone was indifferent as to consent, including her claim that rape could be "deflected" if the victim would "turn on 100 percent, because then there is nothing to rape." Several women who worked for OneTaste testified against Daedone and Cherwitz described instances of uncompensated and forced labor ranging from sex work with investors to menial domestic work including cooking and cleaning.

Verdict

On June 9, 2025, the jury in the case found Daedone and Cherwitz guilty on federal forced labor charges.

Announcing the verdict, the Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. said, "The jury’s verdict has unmasked Daedone and Cherwitz for who they truly are: grifters who preyed on vulnerable victims by making empty promises of sexual empowerment and wellness only to manipulate them into performing labor and services for the defendants’ benefit."

Lawyers for Daedone and Cherwitz told NPR that they intend to appeal the verdict to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Publicist Juda Engelmayer says the verdict "crosses a dangerous line — criminalizing freedom of religion, assembly, expression, and speech."

Following the verdict, Judge Gujarati ordered Daedone and Cherwitz remanded to the custody of the United States Marshals Service citing "witness intimidation" activities of Engelmayer and OneTaste member Marcus Ratnathicam.

Sentencing

In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors requested the 20-year statutory maximum sentence for Daedone. In an asset forfeiture motion, prosecutors argued that the $12 million Nicole Daedone raised through the 2017 sale of her stake in OneTaste were proceeds of the criminal forced labor conspiracy, as were funds held in Daedone's bank accounts. Judge Gujarati granted the motion on March 18, 2026.

Ahead of the sentencing date, Daedone requested permission from the court to don her own clothes instead of their Bureau of Prisons-issue uniforms. The court denied the request.

The court sentenced Daedone to 9 years imprisonment on March 30, 2026. At the sentencing hearing, Judge Gujarati said that Daedone "does not appear to be remorseful".

As of March 2026 Daedone is held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn while awaiting permanent assignment. The Federal Bureau of Prisons lists Daedone as inmate register number 63699-510.