Podcast: Unraveling the deception and destruction behind San Diego’s greatest Ponzi scheme
A special episode of the San Diego News Fix in which we offer a behind-the-scenes look at how our reporters put together this series on Gina Champion-Cain and her Ponzi scam.
Gina Champion-Cain has made headlines for the past three years for scandalous reasons. But for decades before that, she captured more positive media attention.
She was the cover girl for downtown San Diego’s revitalization, beginning in the 1990s. She appeared on magazine covers and in newspaper articles, lauded as a deal-maker, a real estate guru and a restaurateur.
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Now she’s a convicted felon with a legacy no one can dispute: architect of San Diego’s biggest Ponzi scheme. Reporters Lori Weisberg and Greg speak with San Diego News Fix host Kristy Totten about their year-long effort to unravel what was real and what was not about Champion-Cain’s career — without ever being able to speak to her.
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Gina Champion-Cain made a name for herself in the high-pressure restaurant industry and male-dominated world of real estate development, but a felony fraud conviction triggered the question — how much of her professional career was also built on artifice.
A newbie restaurateur, Champion-Cain struggles to build a hospitality empire. But as expenses and debt mount, she masterminds an even bigger enterprise that for eight years was San Diego’s best kept secret. Now she’s in prison, and her victims still are out millions of dollars.
