Charlie Javice, the founder of student loan startup Frank, has been found guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase of $175 million by vastly exaggerating her company's customer base. The verdict was delivered by a New York City jury after a five-week trial.
Javice, 32, claimed Frank had over four million customers when the bank acquired the startup in 2021, but the true number was only around 300,000. Prosecutors said she paid a friend $18,000 to generate fake customer data to deceive JPMorgan's verification process.
Frank's chief engineer testified that Javice asked him to create synthetic data to support the inflated customer numbers, but he refused, stating he would not do anything illegal. Defence lawyers argued that JPMorgan knew the actual customer count and fabricated fraud allegations due to buyer's remorse.
Javice, who appeared on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list, faces a potential lengthy prison sentence. She has been free on $2 million bail since her arrest in 2023.
