$175 Million Student Financial Aid Scammer Receives Prison Sentence for Defrauding Top Investment Bank
After her conviction earlier this year, Charlie Javice, who sold her fraudulent startup to JPMorgan Chase for $175 million, learned on Monday that she will receive seven years in prison.
Javice, 33, started a digital platform called Frank, a solution that claimed to help college students with financial aid, according to a report from CNBC.
JPMorgan Chase acquired the firm, publicly asserting that Frank had helped over five million students seek financial aid.
But a few months later, the powerful Wall Street investment bank realized that Frank only had 300,000 true customers.
Javice fabricated the rest of them with the help of a data scientist, leading to her arrest in 2023.
She and her chief growth officer, Olivier Amar, were found guilty on three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud in March of this year by a 12-person jury, per CNBC.
Javice and Amar must make a combined $287 million in restitution to JPMorgan Chase.
That includes the original price at which Frank was sold, plus over $100 million that JPMorgan Chase had to pay in legal fees, according to a report from Business Insider.
Javice must also fork over $22.36 million in forfeiture and submit to three years of supervision in addition to her time in prison, CNBC reported.
“I will spend my entire life regretting these errors,” Javice said in a tear-filled statement to the court.
“I’m asking with all of my heart for forgiveness,” she said. “I ask your honor to temper justice with mercy.”
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein reacted to Javice’s court statement by claiming she was “a good person who has done good deeds,” according to Business Insider.
“I don’t think you will be committing any crimes, and I think you will be devoting your life to service,” Hellerstein told Javice.
“But others need to be deterred.”
Prosecutors had initially sought 12 years of prison time for Javice and $300 million in restitution.
They said that Javice had pocketed $29 million from the $175 million payout from JPMorgan Chase, but her defense attorneys said the number was about $21 million.
“Based on the defendant’s lies, JPMC projected it could generate more than $500 million in revenue from selling banking products to Frank’s customers,” prosecutors contended, per Business Insider.
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