Chase defrauded
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My checking account is with Chase - but I want to let everybody know that I don't think I'll be affected by this.
Charlie Javice is a French-American entrepreneur best known for founding Frank, a company that claimed to simplify the Federal student aid (FAFSA) application process. (Wikipedia)
Here’s a summary of her background and recent legal developments:
Background & Career
- Born March 14, 1993, in Westchester County, New York. She holds both American and French citizenship. (Wikipedia)
- She attended the French-American School of New York, and graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania (in 2013) with a degree in finance and legal studies. (Wikipedia)
- In 2016 (or around that time), she founded Frank, which aimed to help students more easily apply for financial aid. (Wikipedia)
- Frank gained attention in fintech circles; Javice was named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list (Finance) in 2019. (Wikipedia)
Fraud Case & Conviction
- In 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Javice and Frank’s chief growth officer, Olivier Amar, with securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy. The allegation was that they fabricated or inflated the number of Frank’s users in order to mislead JPMorgan Chase into acquiring Frank for $175 million. (Department of Justice)
- At trial, prosecutors argued Javice had presented false or synthetic user data (including paying a data scientist to create fake user lists) to convince JPMorgan of Frank’s scale. (Department of Justice)
- On March 28, 2025, she was found guilty on all counts. (Wikipedia)
- On September 29, 2025, Javice was sentenced to 85 months (just over 7 years) in prison. She was also ordered to forfeit assets and pay substantial restitution. (AP News)
- The judge in the case also criticized JPMorgan’s due diligence, but held Javice’s actions responsible and emphasized that “fraud is fraud.” (AP News)
- As of the sentencing, she was free on a $2 million bond pending appeal, with restrictions placed on her travel and movement. (AP News)
If you like, I can pull up more detail — e.g. the evidence presented at trial, appeal possibilities, or comparisons to other high-profile startup frauds. Do you want me to dig deeper?
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It's astonishing that a sane and intelligent person thought they could get away with that. Makes me wonder whether it was actually possible to get away with, and whether it's actually possible that people have gotten away with this stuff. Would it have been possible to grow into the fictitious numbers, and avoid all scrutiny? Was that the hope? I guess so. I think that's more likely than sheer crazy stupidity.
I'm sure someone got fired for JPM's due diligence faceplant.
Education is extremely important.
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@Horace wrote:
It's astonishing that a sane and intelligent person thought they could get away with that. ... Would it have been possible to grow into the fictitious numbers, and avoid all scrutiny?
In the Silicon Valley startup scene, it's not uncommon to hear business leaders say out loud "we'll fake it 'til we make it" and believe in it, and they are all sane and intelligent.
Chances are, they are people who have initially faked it and then actually made it, else it would not be as common a rallying cry in the startup circle.
Maybe we tweak the definition a bit and say "getting caught does not count as having made it"?
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Then again, "faking it" in demos and slideware is not the same as "faking it" in formal business filings and legal documents.
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It's astonishing that a sane and intelligent person thought they could get away with that. Makes me wonder whether it was actually possible to get away with, and whether it's actually possible that people have gotten away with this stuff. Would it have been possible to grow into the fictitious numbers, and avoid all scrutiny? Was that the hope? I guess so. I think that's more likely than sheer crazy stupidity.
I'm sure someone got fired for JPM's due diligence faceplant.
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Some more background
https://fortune.com/2025/10/01/charlie-javice-frank-jpmorgan-chase-fraud-prison-sentencing-speech/
Charlie Javice, the 33-year-old entrepreneur who once promised to revolutionize college financial-aid applications, tearfully apologized to JPMorgan Chase, its shareholders, her friends and family, and former employees of her startup, Frank, as she was sentenced to just over seven years in prison on Monday for orchestrating a $175 million fraud.
“Not a day passes that I do not feel profound remorse,” Javice said through tears before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court. Standing to address the court, she said she was “haunted that my failure has transformed something meaningful into something infamous” and admitted to making “a choice that I will spend my entire life regretting.”
The sentencing marks a dramatic fall from grace for Javice, who once graced Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in 2019 and was celebrated as a rising star in financial technology. Her startup Frank, founded in 2017, was designed to simplify the complex process of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) for college students seeking financial assistance.
JPMorgan Chase acquired Frank in September 2021 for $175 million, believing the platform served more than 4 million students across 6,000 higher education institutions. However, prosecutors proved that Javice had fabricated the vast majority of those customers, with the actual number being fewer than 300,000.
The deception unraveled when JPMorgan attempted to market its banking products to Frank’s supposed customer base. When the bank sent marketing emails to 400,000 purported Frank customers, approximately 70% bounced back as undeliverable. The bank’s investigation revealed that Javice had enlisted the help of a data science professor, paying him $18,000 to create fake customer data.
