Charlie Javice, who once ranked in Forbes list, defrauded America's largest bank JPMorgan Chase of $175 million

Charlie Javice, founder of startup Frank, was sentenced Monday after being convicted of charges related to deceiving JPMorgan Chase into a $175 million acquisition, the Department of Justice announced. The 32-year-old woman entrepreneur, who featured in Forbes' "30 under 30" list six years ago, will now serve 85 months in prison for duping America's largest bank when it bought her company in 2021.

Charlie Javice "falsely and dramatically inflated the number of customers" of her company to "fraudulently induce JP Morgan Chase" to acquire Frank for $175 million, according to a Department of Justice post. She reportedly made false records that made it seem like Frank had more than 4 million customers. But in reality, her fintech startup had less than 300,000 customers.

She was first arrested in 2023 and has been free on $2 million bail. She was convicted of conspiracy, wire and bank fraud in March this year. Her prison sentence will be followed by 3 years of supervised release.


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How did Charlie Javice dupe JPMorgan Chase?

The story dates back to 2021 when JPMorgan Chase bought fintech startup Frank with an aim of using the service to connect with younger banking customers. But Charlie Javice misled the bank by presenting millions of fake user accounts, the US prosecutors said.

Javice founded the student financial aid startup Frank in 2017. The online platform promised to simplify the process of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid – a complex government form used by students to apply for aid for college or graduate school.

Her mission was clear: to make higher education more affordable. "College tuition is too damn high," she wrote on LinkedIn in 2020, adding, "We founded Frank with a rebellious spirit and a big goal: Students should pay less for college."

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Javice managed to arrange a one-on-one meeting with JPmMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon when the bank bought her startup. But Charlie allegedly fabricated the data of her startup customer base and began to pursue the sale of Frank to a larger financial institution in 2021.

Two major banks, one of which was JPMC, expressed interest and began acquisition processes with Frank. Javice represented repeatedly to those banks that Frank had 4.25 million customers or “users.”

But things took a U-turn when JPMC sought to verify the actual users of Frank. She allegedly hired an external data scientist to fabricate a synthetic user dataset.After the data set was created, JAVICE provided that synthetic data set to an agreed-upon third-party vendor in an effort to confirm to JPMC that the data set had over 4.25 million rows.

However, after JPMorgan acquired the company for $175 million in 2021, it discovered that the actual number of users was closer to 300,000. The bank became suspicious when it was unable to successfully email most of the alleged customer base, leading to the discovery that Javice had fabricated user data.

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Charlie Javice apologises to JPMorgan

Born in New York, Charlie Javice graduated from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business with a bachelor’s degree in finance and legal studies. Charlie Javice, now 33, apologized to JPMorgan and Frank's investors and employees. Addressing the court in an ivory pantsuit, she grew emotional as she addressed her father and mother.

"At 28, I did something which runs against the grain of my upbringing," Javice said. "These errors, this complete collapse in character ... not a day goes by that I do not replay my mistakes."