Nicole Daedone, co-founder of OneTaste Inc., was also ordered to forfeit $12 million during the hearing in Brooklyn. That was the amount she sold the California-based company for, according to John Marzulli, spokesperson for the Office of U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

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 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. “She is a prolific writer, teacher, and spiritual practitioner whose work has long focused on reducing suffering and fostering meaningful human connection.”

Among those who penned letters of support was Van Jones, a CNN correspondent and former adviser to President Barack Obama.

The longtime criminal justice reform advocate 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 didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment after the sentencing. Rachel Cherwitz, the company’s former sales director, was set to be sentenced later Monday.

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, of California, 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 centered 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 centerpiece 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 have since rebranded it as the Institute of OM Foundation. They maintain its work has been misconstrued and that the charges against its former executives were unjustified.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California couple pleaded guilty Tuesday to forcing a Guatemalan relative and her two daughters to work long hours under poor conditions while keeping the girls out of school with threats that they would be deported.

Nery Martinez Vasquez and his wife, Maura Martinez, both age 53 and both of Shasta Lake, near Redding, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit forced labor.

Both are naturalized U.S. citizens originally from Guatemala who promised their relative a “better life” if she came to America in September 2016, federal prosecutors said.

Instead, they forced the family members to overstay their visas and work long hours for little to no pay at their restaurant, called Latino’s, and at their Redding Carpet Cleaning & Janitorial Services, which served area businesses including multiple car dealerships.

“This case highlights how the dream of coming to the United States to begin a new, promising life can become a nightmare,” Sean Ragan, special agent in charge of the FBI‘s Sacramento field office, said in a statement. The three worked in public view, he said, “yet were imprisoned by fear and the lies they had been told by their exploiters.”

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped charges filed in June alleging that in 1997 the couple conspired to kidnap a 13-year-old girl from her Las Vegas home, then held her against her will for nearly two years while Martinez Vasquez repeatedly raped and sexually molested the girl.

The forced labor conviction carries a sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison, but prosecutors also agreed to recommend a sentence of 6 1/2 years, said defense attorney Mark Reichel.

“We were able to make an agreement that everyone could live with,” Reichel said. ”Going to trial in federal court is always an extreme gamble.”

Prosecutors said the couple told the woman and her daughters that they couldn’t leave until they paid a fictitious debt in full. They threatened to have them arrested for overstaying their visas and told the daughters they couldn’t go to school because they would be deported.

Instead, the girls worked for the couple’s businesses until February 2018, where Martinez Vasquez would sometimes hit them with a stick when he was angry, prosecutors said.

They and their mother were forced to live in what prosecutors described as “dilapidated, unheated trailer with no running water.”

Prosecutors did not disclose the girls’ ages, nor would they give the family’s current circumstances.

The couple agreed to pay the family and other victims $300,000 in restitution as part of their plea agreement.

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