Back in the home office after a couple weeks at the beach. Big thanks to Axios Pro's Lucinda Shen for pinch-hitting while I was out. OK, here we go...

My summer vacations vary on the calendar, but they always overlap with a giant development in a story we've spent months covering.

• I thought this one might be President Trump's executive order on private equity in retirement accounts, but he hasn't signed it yet.
• Instead, it was the long-awaited arrest of CaaStle co-founder and former CEO Christine Hunsicker.

Flashback: CaaStle, a fashion-tech company that had raised over $500 million in venture capital funding, told investors in March that Hunsicker had spent years cooking the books and that federal investigations were underway.

• Last month it filed for bankruptcy protection.

State of play: Both the Justice Department and SEC filed fraud charges against Hunsicker on July 18, and include a slew of new allegations.

• The SEC claims that Hunsicker began doctoring financial reports as early as 2018, even though CaaStle's March letter to investors only cited problems in fiscal 2022 and 2023.
• It also alleges that she repeatedly sold personal shares in the company under false pretense, and that she fabricated secondary share sales in order to raise primary capital for CaaStle.
• DOJ adds that it discovered a slew of damning Internet searches that corresponded with various financial shenanigans, including "faking an audit" and "bank fraud vs. wire fraud severity." And for the coup de grâce, a search apparently related to Frank founder Charlie Javice's scheme to defraud JPMorgan.
• In one case, an investor allegedly noticed problems with an "audited" financial document provided by Hunsicker. She dodged by claiming that she'd inadvertently sent a mock-up that she was using for an upcoming speech at Princeton University. Not only was there no speech, but she claimed it would be about ethics and entrepreneurship.

The other side: Hunsicker plead not guilty.

• Her hasn't yet responded to my request for comment, but did tell the AP that prosecutors presented a "very distorted picture."

The intrigue: What's missing in both complaints is any accountability for CaaStle's board of directors.

• They lay out how an investor alerted the board to problems in December, as we've previously reported, with Hunsicker copping to the misdeeds and the board launching an investigation.
• Then the complaints say that she was booted from the board, as but allowed to remain as CEO under the conditions that she neither fundraise for CaaStle nor sign contracts (at least the first of which she allegedly violated).
• Investors were never told of this arrangement, nor of the misstated financials and cap table, until months later. But the board (so far) has skated on these basic violations of fiduciary duty, nor is there any information about how it did (or didn't?) try to monitor Hunsicker's compliance with the prohibitions.

And there's more: The SEC complaint claims that CaaStle's board during this entire period included Alphabet chair John Hennessy (albeit unnamed), even though CaaStle co-founder (and Princeton computer science professor) JP Singh has claimed Hennessy quietly resigned in December.

• It also acknowledges that Singh late last year sold $6 million in CaaStle stock to outside investors, in a deal organized by Hunsicker, but there's no indication that the government will seek to recover that cash.

The bottom line: Better late than never, given that this is one of the largest VC-backed frauds in history, but it feels that a few more shoes should drop.

CK Hutchinson of Hong Kong today said that it plans to add a "major strategic" Chinese investor to its $22.8 billion ports deal with BlackRock, adding that an exclusive negotiating period between the two firms has expired.

Why it's the BFD: This complicates a landmark agreement that would transfer control of 43 ports in 23 countries, including two in Panama that President Trump has threatened to retake by force.

Zoom in: China called Hutchinson's initial deal a "betrayal," and today's announcement appears aimed at securing Beijing's approval.

• The company didn't provide many additional details, except to say talks are ongoing, but the FT reports that state-owned shipper Cosco is the unnamed investor.
• BlackRock's initial agreement was bifurcated between the Panama ports and all the rest, although the entire package is currently on hold. Don't be surprised if Cosco, or another PRC-tied investor, only buys into the non-Panama piece.
• Talks are ongoing, and it appears that Hutchinson was required to let the exclusive negotiating period expire in order to introduce a new investor. Even if a deal were announced shortly, it could take years to close.

The bottom line: It wasn't hard to foresee that this deal would hit some major hurdles.

• Vanta, an SF-based enterprise compliance management startup, raised $150m in Series D funding at a $4.15b valuation. Wellington led, joined by Atlassian Ventures, CrowdStrike Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital, and JPMorgan. axios.link/45oih1K

• HeroDevs, a Sandy, Utah-based provider of OSS security tools, raised $125m led by PSG. axios.link/46wxWgO

• Salient, an SF-based loan servicing platform, raised $60m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. A16z led, joined by Matrix Partners, Michael Ovitz, and YC. axios.link/4596H9w

• Positron AI, a Reno, Nev.-based developer of a transformer inference appliance, raised $51.6m in Series A funding. Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, and DFJ Growth led, joined by Flume Ventures, Resilience Reserve, 1517 Fund, and Unless. positron.ai

• BlinkOps, a developer of cybersecurity "micro-agents," raised $50m in Series B funding. O.G. Venture Partners led, joined by Lightspeed, Hetz Ventures, and Vertex Growth. blinkops.com

• Root Evidence, a Boise, Idaho-based cybersecurity startup, raised $12.5m in seed funding. Ballistic Ventures led, joined by Grossman Ventures. rootevidence.com