By Frank Parlato

Nicole Daedone, founder of the sexual wellness company OneTaste, was sentenced Monday to nine years in federal prison for forced labor conspiracy. Rachel Cherwitz, the company’s former head of sales, received a 78-month sentence. United States District Judge Diane Gujarati imposed both sentences at a hearing in Brooklyn federal court.

Judge Gujarati said from the bench that Daedone “does not appear to be remorseful.” She also denied the government’s request for a sexual abuse enhancement based on conduct that no jury ever charged or proved.

A sexual abuse enhancement is an upward adjustment under the United States Sentencing Guidelines that increases a defendant’s recommended sentencing range when the offense involved sexual abuse. The government asked Gujarati to apply it based on sexual conduct described during the trial — adult women participating in consensual sex acts with men. The problem is that the government never charged a sex crime, human trafficking or criminal sexual abuse.

- Frank Report — Rachel Cherwitz and Nicole Daedone

Those allegations served as shock value and “ick factor” background narrative to dirty up the defendants before the jury. The government did not ask the jury to decide innocence or guilt of any sex crimes.

Nevertheless, the government wanted to use the adult sexual conduct at sentencing to drive the recommended prison range higher.

Judge Gujarati’s refusal was one of the few rulings that went the defense’s way. Even so, Daedone received nine years on the forced labor conspiracy count.

The sexual abuse enhancement, had Gujarati granted it, could have pushed the guidelines recommendation to the 20-year maximum the government was seeking for Daedone and a 15-year term for Cherwitz.

During the sentencing, only one brainwashing victim spoke, Michal Neria, who claimed Daedone and Cherwitz brainwashed her into consenting to being in OneTaste. Her experience soured after she sought to marry Mike Safyan, also a student at OneTaste, thinking he had money. She felt that Daedone and Cherwitz failed to brainwash her into not being jealous and so the marriage ended in less than a year of constant fighting.

michal neria and misha Safyan ring shopping - Frank Report — Michal Neria claims OneTaste brainwasheed her into marrying the affluent Mike Safyan However she never claimed that OneTaste brainwashed her into go shopping for the most expensive ring Safyan was willing to buy

Show Trial

Defense attorneys called a lengthy sentence “bonkers” and sought roughly two years, citing Daedone’s clean record and more than 200 letters from supporters. Judge Gujarati imposed a $12 million forfeiture judgment against Daedone — the amount she received when she sold OneTaste in 2017 — and ordered $887,877.64 in restitution to seven alleged victims.

A federal jury convicted Daedone, 58, and Cherwitz, 45, in June 2025 after a five-week show trial.

Throughout that trial, Judge Gujarati barred the defense from calling witnesses who would have contradicted the government’s brainwashing narrative, ruling that a defense witness could only impeach an alleged victim’s testimony if that witness had been with the victim around the clock. No human being meets that standard and she knew it.

It functioned as a ban on every witness who could have told the jury a different story about life inside OneTaste.

Judge Gujarati remanded both defendants the day following the verdict. They have been in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn approximately nine months.

gujarati diane - Frank Report — Judge Gujarati

How Much Time Will They Serve

Under the First Step Act, federal prisoners earn 54 days of good conduct time for each year of sentence imposed. Daedone’s 108-month sentence yields roughly 16 months off. Cherwitz’s 78-month sentence yields roughly 12 months. Both also qualify for First Step Act Earned Time Credits for completing approved programming, which could further reduce their time depending on what BOP makes available.

Both qualify for up to 12 months in a residential reentry center, followed by a home confinement period. Daedone faces roughly five years more in a prison facility, with transfer to a halfway house late 2031 and probation in early 2032.

Cherwitz faces roughly 3.5 more years behind bars, with probation in early 2030.

With maximum good conduct time, aggressive First Step programming participation, and the full 12-month halfway house period, Cherwitz could be out of a prison facility as early as late 2027. Daedone’s best case is late 2029. Those early release projections assume BOP grants low-risk classifications and makes programming available.

BOP will designate both to a long-term facility within a few weeks. Nothing guarantees they will be together. Female federal facilities within range of New York include FCI Danbury in Connecticut and FCI Alderson in West Virginia. If BOP assigns both low-security designations, Danbury is a plausible shared destination.

First Brainwashing Conviction

This is not a standard forced labor case. The nine alleged victims were all white, college-educated women from middle-class or affluent families — a profile almost never seen in forced labor prosecutions, which typically involve physical confinement, document seizure, threats of violence, or immigration coercion.

nine college educated brainwashed women - Frank Report — These nine women testified that they were brainwashed and that their adult consent was voided by dint of the incapacity of their brains to avoid washing

Every government witness testified under cross-examination that she had been free to leave. Every one signed consent forms acknowledging she could say no to any activity at any time.

Their own words from the stand made the point. Michelle Wright testified: “Nobody held a gun to my head.” Michal Neria: “Each and every one of those things was offered to me and yes, I made the choice to.” Asked directly — you chose to work at OneTaste? “Yes.” You signed up to do it? “Yes.”

Then there was the exchange that best captures what this case actually was. Rebecca Halpern testified she had been happy at OneTaste. She also testified she had been brainwashed. Asked how those two things fit together, she answered: “The happiness is part of the brainwashing. Because people don’t stay in places where they’re not happy.”

Happiness is evidence of coercion. There is no fact pattern under that theory that produces an acquittal.

The government’s answer was brainwashing. The victims’ own word for what happened to them was brainwashing. Their adult consent meant nothing because, the government argued, brainwashing supersedes consent — even for women over the age of consent who had graduated college.

AUSA Kayla Bensing told the jury: “The defendants argue that these were grown women, these were adults. And they were educated, they were smart. They did walk in here with degrees and careers and they were clearly thoughtful, conscientious people. Members of the jury, that just shows how powerful the coercion was in this case.”

Consent is Proof of Brainwashing for Women

Competence is evidence of coercion. Education is proof of manipulation. The smarter the woman, the stronger the brainwashing case.

The serious harm element was the fear of losing friends or a job — a standard so low that virtually anyone could qualify as a victim if they feared losing a community they had voluntarily joined.

United States v. Cherwitz is the first federal criminal conviction in American history that rests on psychological coercion theory — brainwashing — as the sole mechanism of the conspiracy to commit forced labor, with no accompanying charge of actual forced labor. The government brought no underlying forced labor charge — only conspiracy to commit it.

It is almost as much of a pioneer conviction as was Salem 333 years ago. In short, the government successfully convicted, for the first time, two women of conspiring to commit brainwashing.

AUSA Kaitlin T. Farrell told the jury: “It’s not about whether these victims actually suffered serious harm. That is absolutely not the question of this trial.”

onetaste art - Frank Report — AUSA Kaitlin Farrell

The question was whether the women intended to brainwash the nine adult women into believing they consented to what they said they consented to do.

The defense plans to appeal to the Second Circuit.

Attorney Alan Dershowitz announced in March that he is lobbying the White House directly for a pardon.

Defense attorney John Lauro said, “The judge found no criminal sexual conduct. This case is purely about criminalizing a spiritual practice that places all religions at risk.”

In other words, brainwashing.