A New York federal court found Charlie Javice, the millennial fintech CEO who allegedly duped JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million, guilty of three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud on Friday. Javice could now face decades in prison.
The Ivy League graduate is the founder of Frank, a start-up that promised to help millions of college students apply for financial aid. In 2019, two years after launching the company, Javice was featured on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.
In 2021, JPMorgan Chase purchased Frank from Javice for $175 million. Jennifer Roberts, Chase’s head of consumer banking, told CNBC at the time that the bank acquired Frank in order to build “lifelong, engaged relationships” with college student consumers. But all was not as it seemed with the business.
In 2023, JPMorgan Chase accused Javice of “falsely and dramatically” inflating Frank’s customer base before selling the business to them.
Prosecutors accused Javice of falsely claiming that Frank had 4.25 million customers when, in reality, JPMorgan Chase could only find verifiable data for approximately 300,000 users.
Javice was indicted on charges of wire bank and wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud.
At the time, Javice denied the accusations against her and said the bank “cannot prove its outlandish claims.”
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called Javice’s actions a “brazen scheme to defraud” the bank, saying she “lied directly” to the largest bank in the country.
Javice’s alleged co-conspirator, Olivier Amar, was Frank’s chief growth and acquisition officer. He was indicted on the same charges and added to the civil suit against Javice, though he claims she acted on her own.
Both pleaded not guilty, but were found guilty on all counts.
Javice’s attorney, Jose Baez, said that the prosecution’s case lacked evidence and was “incredibly flawed” and that “the wealthiest bank in the world” didn’t acquire Frank due to its consumer numbers.
