Tech CEO Indicted Over Alleged Fraud Charges

Christine Hunsicker, the founder and CEO of fashion tech startup CaaStle, has been indicted on fraud-related charges after she allegedly defrauded investors out of more than $300 million.

In an indictment unsealed on Friday, July 18, more details tied to Hunsicker’s alleged fraud scheme, which raised money for both CaaStle, a clothing-rental company, and another venture, P180, were revealed, according to the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. 

Through the alleged scheme, Hunsicker, 48, defrauded CaaStle and P180 investors out of more than $300 million “through false statements, misleading claims, and fabricated documents,” according to the attorney’s office.

The newly unsealed indictment charges the New Jersey native and Princeton University alum with wire fraud and securities fraud, as well as money laundering, making false statements to a financial institution and aggravated identity theft.

Hunsicker self-surrendered on July 18. Later that same day, she pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to the Associated Press.

In a statement obtained by PEOPLE, the entrepreneur’s lawyers, Michael Levy and Anna Skotko, said, “There is much more to this story.”

“Although Ms. Hunsicker has been fully cooperative and transparent with both the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY and the SEC, they nonetheless have chosen to present to the public an incomplete and very distorted picture in today’s indictment,” they continued.

“There is much more to this story, and we look forward to telling it,” the lawyers’ statement added.

While CaaStle — which filed for bankruptcy in June — was in “financial distress with limited cash and significant expenses,” Hunsicker allegedly “grossly overstated” its financial situation, instead promoting the venture as a “rapidly growing business valued at more than $1.4 billion,” according to the attorney’s office. She used falsified statements, bank records and other documents to do so, the indictment alleges.

One fake bank account screenshot, which Hunsicker allegedly provided to an investor, showed that CaaStle had nearly $200 million in available cash, the attorney’s office said. At the time, the real figure was less than $200,000.

Hunsicker kept up the scheme even after she was “confronted” over providing an investor with a fake audit in October 2023, claiming it was a “one-time error,” the attorney’s office alleges. She had actually provided two fake audits to the investor, the office claims, and later repaid them “to prevent the public disclosure of her fraud.”

The scheme included not only false bank statements and audits, but also falsified signatures, the attorney’s office claims. In 2024, the entrepreneur allegedly forged a board director signature to raise more than $20 million for CaaStle. 

Around the same time, Hunsicker formed P180 to infuse CaaStle with cash before her fraud scheme came to life, and used “false information about CaaStle’s success to raise approximately $30 million” for the new venture, per the attorney’s office. She also allegedly provided false information to obtain a personal bank loan of $20 million.

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In total, Hunsicker raked in more than $275 million in investments through her fraudulent behavior — which continued even after CaaStle “prohibited her from soliciting investments” and “after law enforcement agents seized her electronic devices” earlier this year, according to the attorney’s office.

Hunsicker faces one count of wire fraud, one count of money laundering and two counts of securities fraud, which carry maximum prison sentences of 20 years a piece.

Making false statements to a financial institution, for which she faces one count, carries an even longer maximum sentence of 30 years. Aggravated identity theft, meanwhile, carries a mandatory prison sentence of two years.