By LARRY NEUMEISTER

NEW YORK (AP) — A former chief executive of two clothing technology companies who was once portrayed as an on-the-rise fashion entrepreneur has surrendered to face charges in an indictment unsealed Friday alleging that she cheated investors of over $300 million over the last six years.

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Christine Hunsicker, 48, of Lafayette, New Jersey, was charged with six counts, including fraud, aggravated identity theft and false statement charges in the indictment in Manhattan federal court.

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said in a release that Hunsicker forged documents, fabricated audits and made material misrepresentations about her company’s financial condition to defraud investors in CaaStle Inc. and P180.

The indictment said she portrayed CaaStle as a high-growth, private company with substantial cash on hand when she knew it faced significant financial distress.

In a statement, defense lawyers Michael Levy and Anna Skotko said prosecutors “have chosen to present to the public an incomplete and very distorted picture in today’s indictment,” despite Hunsicker’s efforts to be “fully cooperative and transparent” with prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“There is much more to this story, and we look forward to telling it,” they said.

According to the indictment, Hunsicker continued her fraudulent scheme even after the CaaStle board of directors removed her and prohibited her from soliciting investments or taking other actions on the company’s behalf.

She “persisted in her scheme” even after law enforcement agents confronted her over the fraud, the indictment said.

Before the fraud allegations emerged, Hunsicker seemed to be a rising star in the fashion world after she was named to Crain’s New York Business “40 under 40” lists, was selected as one of Inc.’s “Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs” and was recognized by the National Retail Federation as someone shaping the future of retail, the indictment noted.

At a time when the business was in financial distress with limited cash available and significant expenses, CaaStle was valued by Hunsicker at $1.4 billion, the indictment said.

Hunsicker was lying to investors in February 2019 and continued to do so through this March, prosecutors alleged.

They said she fed investors falsely inflated income statements, fake audited financial statements, fictitious bank account records and sham corporate records.

She allegedly told one investor in August 2023 that CaaStle reported an operating profit of nearly $24 million in the second quarter of 2023 when its operating profit that quarter was actually less than $30,000.

The indictment alleged that she carried out the majority of the fraud by bilking CaaStle investors of $275 million before forming P180 last year to infuse CaaStle with cash before its investors could discover her fraud.

Through misrepresentations and omissions, she cheated P180 investors out of about $30 million, the indictment said.

It said CaaStle filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy last month, leaving hundreds of investors holding now-worthless CaaStle shares.

After a delayed opening due to a leak in a pipe underneath the pool, a second leak was found and prompted the closure of the Bloomington Family Aquatic Center for the rest of the season, city officials said on Friday.

Officials made the decision after the leak was discovered during routine maintenance and after consultation with contractors, the city announced on its website. The pool was closed on Tuesday and then officially shut down for season on Friday.

“The repairs needed are significant and will take weeks to complete, leaving little remaining time in the swimming season and insufficient staff to reopen the facility,” the announcement read. “The (city) is committed to making this right for our valued guests. As a result, all season pass holders will receive a full refund on their purchase. Pass holders will receive an email with more details on the refund process.”

The pool opened late this season, on June 19, which was 10 days after its scheduled opening. At the time, city cited a leak — and its repair—as the cause of the delay. The leak, in a pipe under the main surface of the pool, was first mentioned in early June.

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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says bases in Indiana and New Jersey can house detained immigrants without affecting military readiness — a step toward potentially detaining thousands of people on bases on U.S. soil.

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Hegseth notified members of Congress from both states this week of the proposal to temporarily house detained immigrants at Camp Atterbury in Indiana, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey.

President Donald Trump has moved to aggressively detain and deport people in the country illegally, a push that has swept up large numbers of immigrants, including many with no prior criminal records, and forced federal authorities to find places to house them.

Hegseth said the presence of the detainees would not negatively affect the bases’ operations or training. Officials have not said when detainees could begin arriving at the facilities or if other military bases are under consideration.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said there are about 60,000 beds currently available for detained immigrants and the goal is to expand to 100,000.

“We’re looking for any available bed space we can get that meets the detention standards we’re accustomed to,” Homan said Friday. “The faster we get the beds, the more people we can take off the street.”

Democratic lawmakers from both states and civil rights advocates condemned the idea of housing immigrants at the bases, questioning the impact on military resources and the justification for so many detentions.

“Using our country’s military to detain and hold undocumented immigrants jeopardizes military preparedness and paves the way for (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids in every New Jersey community,” New Jersey’s Democratic delegation said in a statement.

Democratic Rep. Andre Carson of Indiana said his questions about detainee conditions have gone unanswered by the Trump administration.

He cited concerns raised about conditions at other facilities and said, “The fact that ICE has detained so many individuals that they now need to expand detention space in Indiana is disturbing.”

Amol Sinha, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said in a statement that housing immigrants in military facilities sets a dangerous precedent “and is contrary to the values embedded in our Constitution.”

Both of the bases identified by Hegseth have housed Afghan or Ukrainian refugees in recent years.

During Trump’s first administration, he authorized the use of military bases to detain immigrant children — including Army installations at Fort Bliss and Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas.

In 2014, President Barack Obama temporarily relied on military bases to detain immigrant children while ramping up privately operated family detention centers to hold many of the tens of thousands of Central American families who crossed the border.

Associated Press writers Christine Fernando and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A transgender woman has sued Princeton University claiming she was illegally removed shortly before her race in a school-hosted track meet in May due to her gender identity.

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An attorney for Sadie Schreiner filed the complaint in New Jersey Superior Court on Tuesday, listing the school along with athletic director John Mack and director of track operations Kimberly Keenan-Kirkpatrick as defendants. The lawsuit also lists New York-based Leone Timing and Results Services as a defendant in its role of handling official timing for organized track and field events.

The lawsuit comes more than five months after the NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender athletes to limit competition in women’s sports to athletes assigned female at birth. That change came a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.

Schreiner, who had transitioned during high school, had previously run for Division III Rochester Institute of Technology but was set to compete as an athlete unattached to any school or club in the Larry Ellis Invitational. The complaint seeks unspecified damages for a “humiliating, dehumanizing and dignity-stripping ordeal” in front of family and friends.

The complaint cites New Jersey anti-discrimination law barring discrimination for being transgender, with schools considered areas of “public accommodation.”

“We stand by the allegations in the pleading,” Schreiner attorney Susie Cirilli told The Associated Press on Friday. “As stated in the complaint, the defendants’ individual actions were intolerable in a civilized community and go beyond the possible bounds of decency.”

Princeton’s media and athletics officials as well as Leone Timing did not return emails from the AP seeking comment.

According to the complaint, Schreiner originally signed up to run the 100- and 200-meter races before later declaring only for the 200 despite registering and qualifying for both races. The complaint says she learned 15 minutes before her race that her name had been removed from the official list of competitors, then raised the issue with Leone Timing officials before being directed to Mack and Keenan-Kirkpatrick.

During that exchange, the complaint states, Keenan-Kirkpatrick said, “I do not want to assume, but you are transgender.” Additionally, Keenan-Kirkpatrick “further suggested that she had tried to organize a separate segregated event just for Sadie so that she could run” while Schreiner provided a birth certificate and driver’s license recognizing her as a female, according to the complaint.

According to her Instagram page, Schreiner said she was “barred” from running in a February track event at Boston University as an unattached athlete following the Trump order and NCAA policy change.

The nationwide battle over transgender girls on girls’ and women’s sports teams has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness. More than two dozen states have enacted laws barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain sports competitions. Some policies have been blocked in court.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports