Gina Champion-Cain is a former San Diego business executive who orchestrated what is considered one of the largest woman-led Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. Beginning around 2012, she raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors by promising to use their funds to make high-interest loans to individuals seeking California liquor licenses—funds she claimed would be held in escrow. In reality, she diverted the money to prop up her struggling businesses, to pay returns to earlier investors, and to sustain her lifestyle, while fabricating documents and attempting to conceal her fraud.
