Startup founder accused of tricking JPMorgan charged with $175 million fraud
by Emma Roth from The Verge - All Posts on (#6AGY6)
Photo by Erik McGregor / LightRocket via Getty Images
Former Frank CEO Charlie Javice has been charged with defrauding JPMorgan Chase after the bank acquired her financial aid startup for $175 million in 2021. In a complaint filed on Tuesday, the Department of Justice accuses the fintech founder of falsely and dramatically inflating" the number of clients her startup served to fraudulently induce" JPMorgan Chase into acquiring the company.
The 31-year-old Javice, who was included in Forbes' 30 under 30 list in 2019, created Frank in 2016 with the stated goal of simplifying the financial aid process for students and maximizing the amount of aid they received.
A list of 4.25 million users allegedly contains fewer than 300,000 real accounts
Javice later became a managing director at JPMorgan...