Christine Hunsicker, founder and former CEO of fashion-technology company CaaStle, has been sentenced to five years in prison for defrauding hundreds of investors of nearly $300 million.
Hunsicker, 49, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in connection with a scheme that ran from 2019 to 2025. Prosecutors said she presented CaaStle as a rapidly growing company worth more than $1.4 billion, despite knowing that the business was struggling financially, with dwindling cash reserves and substantial expenses. To attract new investment, Hunsicker provided investors with fabricated income statements, fake audited financial statements, fictitious bank records and other forged corporate documents that dramatically overstated CaaStle’s revenue, profits and available cash. She also falsely claimed that some investments would finance the purchase of discounted shares from existing shareholders seeking liquidity. Prosecutors said those shareholders did not exist and the money was instead used as new capital for CaaStle.
Hunsicker continued the scheme after an audit firm confronted her about a forged audit in 2023. In 2024, she allegedly falsified the signatures of two board members to make it appear that they had approved a stock-option transaction that raised more than $20 million. In December 2024, CaaStle’s board removed Hunsicker as chair and barred her from soliciting further investment. She nevertheless continued seeking capital for CaaStle and a related venture. Even after federal agents seized her electronic devices in March 2025, prosecutors said she continued discussions with an investor using fraudulent financial documents. CaaStle filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June 2025. Hunsicker was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $283.3 million in forfeiture and an equal amount in restitution.