The Justice Department charged Charlie Javice, the founder of fintech platform Frank, with defrauding JPMorgan Chase of $175M.
The
indictment alleges that Javice "falsely and dramatically" inflated the
number of customers Frank had in order to "fraudulently induce" JPMorgan
to acquire her company. The Justice Department said that Javice stood
to gain over $45M from the transaction.
- Frank was a financial planning platform for college students and people aspiring to attend college.
- JPMorgan acquired Frank for $175M in September 2021
- In December 2022, JPMorgan sued Javice saying she misled the bank about the company's customer base and revenue.
- The bank says that Javice claimed that Frank had over 4 million users when it had less than 300,000.
- Javice, who denies the accusations, later countersued the bank, demanding $27.9M she says she is owed from the deal.
- JPMorgan shut down Frank in January.
- The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed another lawsuit against Javice.
