Founder Of Fashion Tech Company CaaStle Sentenced To Five Years In Prison For $300 Million Fraud Scheme
Thursday, August 20, 2026 - United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jamie McDonald, announced today that CHRISTINE HUNSICKER was sentenced to five years in prison for securities fraud. HUNSICKER previously pled guilty to one count of securities fraud in connection with a scheme to defraud hundreds of investors in CaaStle, a retail-technology business before U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken, who imposed today’s sentence.
“Christine Hunsicker perpetrated a large-scale fraud at CaaStle, falsely promoting her fashion-tech startup as a billion-dollar success when it was a counterfeit,” said U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald. “Using forged documents and fabricated audits, Hunsicker stole $300 million from unwitting investors who believed her falsehoods. Besides harming investors in private markets, fraud in the startup space stunts growth and dims innovation. The women and men of this Office will work tirelessly to protect those investors and ensure integrity in those markets, so that innovation can thrive, and those who seek to undermine the integrity of those markets will face justice.”
According to the Indictment and other information in the public record:
Between 2019 and 2025, HUNSICKER, a well-known entrepreneur and businessperson in the fashion-tech industry, orchestrated a massive fraud scheme in which she duped investors into giving her nearly $300 million for CaaStle, a retail technology company she founded and led as CEO. While promoting CaaStle as a rapidly growing business valued at more than $1.4 billion, HUNSICKER knew that CaaStle was in financial distress with dwindling cash and significant expenses. To raise capital for CaaStle’s operations, HUNSICKER provided investors with falsified income statements, fake audited financial statements, fictitious bank records, and sham corporate documents that grossly overstated CaaStle’s operating profit, revenue, and available cash. She also misrepresented to investors that their funds would be used to purchase discounted shares from existing shareholders who needed liquidity, when in fact she fabricated the existence of those shareholders and used the money as new capital for CaaStle while concealing the company’s cash needs.
When confronted by an audit firm in October 2023 about transmitting a fake audit to an investor, HUNSICKER lied, falsely claiming that she had created the fake audit in connection with a lecture she gave at Princeton University, and that sending the audit to the investor had been a one-time error. She later repaid that investor to prevent the public disclosure of her fraud and continued furnishing fake financials to investors. In 2024, HUNSICKER also falsified the signatures of two prominent Board directors to make it appear that the Board had authorized the grant of stock options to another investor, raising more than $20 million for CaaStle.
In October 2024, HUNSICKER provided yet another investor with a fake draft audit. HUNSICKER tried to pay off that investor, but he refused. In December 2024, the CaaStle Board removed HUNSICKER as Chair and prohibited her from soliciting investments. Undeterred, HUNSICKER continued her fraudulent activities. She raised, and attempted to raise, new capital for CaaStle and P180, a related business venture. In February 2025, HUNSICKER attempted to sell an additional $19 million of her CaaStle shares to another investor. HUNSICKER persisted in her deceptive practices even after law enforcement agents seized her electronic devices in March 2025, continuing to meet with the investor about a fake audit without revealing its fraudulent nature, her removal from the Board, or the prohibition against her selling shares. CaaStle filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on June 20, 2025.
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In addition to the prison term, HUNSCIKER, 49, of Lafayette, New Jersey, was sentenced to three years of supervised release. HUNSICKER was ordered to pay forfeiture and restitution to her victims, each in the amount of $283,291,940.
Mr. McDonald praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. McDonald also thanked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for its assistance in the investigation.
The case is being handled by the Office’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marguerite B. Colson and Alexandra N. Rothman are in charge of the prosecution
Contact
Nicholas Biase, Shelby Wratchford
(212) 637-2600
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York
