Charlie Javice, the founder of the student financial aid assistance company Frank, has been found guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase in connection with its $175 million acquisition of the firm.
Javice and her co-defendant Olivier Amar, Frank’s former chief growth officer, were convicted on all four counts they faced: securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy. Sentencing for the two is set to take place in July and August.
In late 2021, JPMorgan agreed to acquire Frank, but in December 2022, the bank filed a lawsuit against Javice, claiming she had fabricated a list of millions of fake users to facilitate the deal.
Acting Manhattan US Attorney Matthew Podolsky alleged that Javice falsely assured JPMorgan that Frank had 4.25 million customers, despite the actual figure being only 300,000. Prosecutors described her actions as “a brazen scheme to defraud” the bank, asserting that she lied directly to JPMorgan and fabricated data to support her claims, all in an effort to gain over $45 million from the sale of her company.
Following the trial, Podolsky remarked, “While Javice and Amar may have thought that they could lie and cheat their way to a huge payday, their lies caught up with them.” Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, has since labeled the acquisition of Frank a “huge mistake.”