NJ Fashion-Tech CEO Admits To $300M Investment Fraud Scheme

SUSSEX COUNTY, NJ — A Sussex County businesswoman has pleaded guilty to defrauding hundreds of millions of dollars from investors, officials said.

Christine Hunsicker, 48, of Lafayette, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of securities fraud.

Hunsicker is the founder and former CEO of CaaStle Inc., a New York-based fashion-tech start-up company.

According to court documents, Hunsicker promoted her company as a “rapidly growing business valued at more than $1.4 billion,” while knowing that the company was in great financial peril.

Hunsicker, in an attempt to keep her company afloat, provided investors with phony income statements, audited financial statements, bank records, and corporate documents, which “grossly overstated” the business’s financial situation.

After being bamboozled by Hunsicker’s phony documents, several investors put roughly $300 million into CaaStle Inc., which was not a thriving start-up, but a crumbling enterprise.

In October 2023, when confronted by an audit firm about a fake audit sent to an investor, Hunsicker claimed she created it for a Princeton University lecture and that sending it was a one-time error. In reality, she had provided two fake audits to the investor, and later, paid that investor back to prevent public disclosure of her fraud.

She continued the scheme, providing an investor with fake bank account screenshots showing nearly $200 million in available cash when CaaStle had less than $200,000.

These tactics continued for a year, with Hunsicker eventually using them with P180, a new business, raising millions from CaaStle investors by repeating misrepresentations about CaaStle’s financial performance.

Even when Hunsicker was removed as Chair of CaaStle, and the Board ordered her to stop seeking investments, she continued to seek millions from investors to raise new capital for CaaStle and P180.

Her attempts to defraud investors continued even after investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seized her electronic devices in March 2025.

CaaStle filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on June 20, 2025.

As part of her plea deal, Hunsicker will forfeit nearly $300 million in proceeds from her illegal scheme.

She faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and is scheduled for sentencing in August.