Charlie Javice, the founder of financial aid startup Frank and a former Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding JPMorgan Chase.
Javice’s company, which claimed to simplify the college financial aid process, was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2021 for $175 million. Soon after, the bank alleged that Javice had misrepresented Frank’s customer base, inflating its numbers from 300,000 actual users to 4 million fabricated accounts.
During the trial, prosecutors presented testimony from former Frank engineer Patrick Vovor, who said Javice asked him to generate fake user data before the acquisition. After he refused, Javice turned to math professor and data scientist Adam Kapelner, who helped create synthetic data and later testified against her.
The court also held Olivier Amar, Frank’s former chief growth officer, responsible as a co-defendant. Together, Javice and Amar must pay $278.5 million in restitution.
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The case underscores ongoing concerns in the tech and startup world around due diligence and inflated growth claims. Despite JPMorgan’s acquisition of Frank, the scandal highlights the risks of rapid deal-making without sufficient verification.
