By LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — A former chief govt of two clothes know-how firms who was as soon as portrayed as an on-the-rise trend entrepreneur has surrendered to face expenses in an indictment unsealed Friday alleging that she cheated buyers of over $300 million over the past six years.
Christine Hunsicker, 48, of Lafayette, New Jersey, was charged with six counts, together with fraud, aggravated id theft and false assertion expenses within the indictment in Manhattan federal court docket.
U.S. Lawyer Jay Clayton mentioned in a launch that Hunsicker cast paperwork, fabricated audits and made materials misrepresentations about her firm’s monetary situation to defraud buyers in CaaStle Inc. and P180.
The indictment mentioned she portrayed CaaStle as a high-growth, non-public firm with substantial money readily available when she knew it confronted important monetary misery.
In an announcement, protection attorneys Michael Levy and Anna Skotko mentioned prosecutors “have chosen to current to the general public an incomplete and really distorted image in at this time’s indictment,” regardless of Hunsicker’s efforts to be “absolutely cooperative and clear” with prosecutors and the Securities and Change Fee.
“There may be far more to this story, and we look ahead to telling it,” they mentioned.
In line with the indictment, Hunsicker continued her fraudulent scheme even after the CaaStle board of administrators eliminated her and prohibited her from soliciting investments or taking different actions on the corporate’s behalf.
She “endured in her scheme” even after legislation enforcement brokers confronted her over the fraud, the indictment mentioned.
Earlier than the fraud allegations emerged, Hunsicker gave the impression to be a rising star within the trend world after she was named to Crain’s New York Enterprise “40 below 40” lists, was chosen as one in all Inc.’s “Most Spectacular Girls Entrepreneurs” and was acknowledged by the Nationwide Retail Federation as somebody shaping the way forward for retail, the indictment famous.
At a time when the enterprise was in monetary misery with restricted money out there and important bills, CaaStle was valued by Hunsicker at $1.4 billion, the indictment mentioned.
Hunsicker was mendacity to buyers in February 2019 and continued to take action via this March, prosecutors alleged.
They mentioned she fed buyers falsely inflated earnings statements, faux audited monetary statements, fictitious checking account data and sham company data.
She allegedly informed one investor in August 2023 that CaaStle reported an working revenue of almost $24 million within the second quarter of 2023 when its working revenue that quarter was truly lower than $30,000.
The indictment alleged that she carried out the vast majority of the fraud by bilking CaaStle buyers of $275 million earlier than forming P180 final 12 months to infuse CaaStle with money earlier than its buyers may uncover her fraud.
Via misrepresentations and omissions, she cheated P180 buyers out of about $30 million, the indictment mentioned.
It mentioned CaaStle filed for Chapter 7 chapter final month, leaving a whole bunch of buyers holding now-worthless CaaStle shares.
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