Charlie Javice Sentenced in $175M JPMorgan Fraud

Charlie Javice, the 33-year-old founder of the fintech startup Frank, has been sentenced to 85 months—just over seven years—in prison for defrauding JPMorgan Chase in its $175 million acquisition of her company. The sentencing, delivered Monday in Manhattan federal court by Judge Alvin Hellerstein, marked the end of what prosecutors described as an “audacious and multifaceted fraud.”

In March, a jury convicted Javice and her former chief growth officer, Olivier Amar, on three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. Prosecutors said Javice exaggerated Frank’s user base, claiming the platform had millions of student customers when, in reality, it had only a fraction of that number.

Frank, launched as a tool to simplify financial aid applications, attracted JPMorgan in 2021 as the bank sought to expand its reach with younger clients. Convinced by Javice’s claims of rapid growth, JPMorgan agreed to acquire the company for $175 million. But according to prosecutors, Javice fabricated the numbers to close the deal. When a company engineer refused to create fake records, she allegedly hired an outside data scientist to produce synthetic user accounts.

During Monday’s sentencing, Javice delivered an emotional apology, breaking down in tears as she expressed remorse. “I will spend my entire life regretting these errors,” she told the court. She turned to her family seated in the front row to thank them for their support and to ask for forgiveness. “I’m asking with all of my heart for forgiveness,” she said, pleading for leniency.

Judge Hellerstein acknowledged Javice’s statement but emphasized the need for accountability. “I sentence people not because they’re bad, but because they do bad things,” he said. “I don’t think you’ll be committing other crimes and that you’ll be devoting your life to service, but others have to be deterred.”

Along with the prison term, Javice was ordered to forfeit $22.36 million and pay $287 million in restitution to JPMorgan, bringing total financial penalties to more than $309 million. She will also serve three years of supervised release after her sentence. For now, Javice remains free on bail while she appeals the ruling.

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U.S. Attorney Amanda Houle highlighted the scale of the fraud in a statement after the hearing. “Charlie Javice perpetrated a $175 million fraud — repeatedly lying about the success of her startup company and even hiring a data scientist to create fake data to back up her lies,” Houle said. “Monday’s sentence sends a clear message that brazen frauds will be met with serious penalties.”

The case has drawn widespread attention in financial and tech circles, both for its scale and for what it reveals about the risks of high-stakes acquisitions. Prosecutors said Javice’s actions were driven by greed and ambition, pointing to her willingness to orchestrate elaborate fabrications to mislead one of the nation’s largest banks.

For JPMorgan, the deal to acquire Frank has become a cautionary tale. What was meant to be a strategic move to attract student borrowers instead led to huge financial losses, a criminal trial, and one of the fintech sector’s most notable fraud cases in recent memory.