Charlie Javice, the founder of the student loan startup Frank, was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in prison for cheating JPMorgan Chase out of millions by inflating user data.
Prosecutors said Javice, 33, duped JPMorgan Chase into buying her company by exaggerating its student numbers, leading to her March conviction on bank, securities, and wire fraud, as well as conspiracy charges.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court handed down her 85-month prison sentence, followed by three years of supervised release.
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Javice must also hand over $22 million in salary, stock, and bonuses tied to the $175 million sale of her company, and jointly pay $287.5 million in restitution with her co-defendant, Olivier Amar, Frank’s former chief growth officer.
Founded in 2017 when Javice was in her mid-twenties, Frank was promoted as a tool to simplify federal financial aid processes for students and parents. The platform was to revolutionize the way college students apply.
The startup gained attention and landed Javice on Forbes’ "30 Under 30" list while attracting JPMorgan’s interest.
In 2021, the banking giant acquired Frank for $175 million, with CEO Jamie Dimon personally meeting Javice as they negotiated the purchase.
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But prosecutors said the business was built on lies, because while Florida-based Javice claimed Frank had more than 4 million active users, the true number was closer to 300,000.
To support her claims, Javice allegedly worked with a college professor to fabricate user data and purchased names from commercial data brokers.
When JPMorgan attempted to contact Frank’s supposed customer base after the acquisition, the lies unraveled.
Prosecutors argued the bank had "acquired a crime scene." JPMorgan’s Dimon later described the purchase as a "huge mistake."
"I accept the jury’s verdict and take full responsibility," Javice told the court at her sentencing.
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Her defense team argued she had made a terrible but isolated mistake, pointing to her history of good deeds and fertility struggles in hopes of leniency.
"Your crimes required a great deal of duplicity," Judge Hellerstein said: "You are a good person who has done good deeds. But others need to be deterred."
Javice, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, plans to appeal her conviction but will be required to report to prison once the process concludes.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Charlie Javice's legal team for comment.
