Frank Founder Charlie Javice Pleads Not Guilty To Fraud Over JPMorgan Sale

Topline

Charlie Javice, the founder of former student loan assistance company Frank, pleaded not guilty to fraud charges on Monday, after allegedly lying about the company’s database when she sold it to banking giant JPMorgan Chase for $175 million in 2021.

Charlie Javice pleaded not guilty to charges she defrauded JPMorgan Chase during its blockbuster … [+] acquisition of shuttered student financial aid company Frank.

Key Facts

Javice, who was arrested last month, faces charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and wire fraud affecting a financial institution—which each carry a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison—as well as one count of securities fraud, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence, according to a criminal complaint from the Department of Justice.

The Securities and Exchange Commission had charged Javice last month with violating the federal Securities Act, claiming she enticed JPMorgan to purchase the college financial loan startup by lying about Frank’s database of students, repeatedly claiming the company had data on 4.25 million students, when really the number was less than 300,000 (Javice denies the allegations).

Javice allegedly misled JPMorgan into believing the company had information on those students, who had been looking for financial assistance, by concealing the fact the real number of students in its database was significantly lower and falsifying data, according to a complaint filed last month in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

In one-on-one meetings, Javice allegedly told JPMorgan officials the company had the names and contact information of those students, and when asked to review that information, Javice paid a professor to create fake data, which she provided to the bank, the SEC alleges.

Javice then provided a list of real students to “pass off as Frank’s customers,” knowing that JPMorgan would have access to the company’s actual database after the sale, and paid $180,000 to two data companies to do so, according to the complaint.

Javice’s attorney Alex Spiro did not immediately respond to a Forbes request for comment.

Big Number

$9.7 million. That’s how much Javice received in stock proceeds as a result of the $175 million acquisition, in addition to a $20 million retention bonus she received as a new JPMorgan employee, according to the SEC.

Key Background

At the time of the sale in 2021, Javice posted on LinkedIn, “It’s not every day that an entrepreneur gets her fairytale new beginning,” lauding the company she founded as the “leading and fastest growing college financial planning platform serving over 5 million students at over 6,000 colleges.” Following the sale, however, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon lamented the acquisition was a “huge mistake,” calling out Javice for inflating the value of Frank by falsifying data. Javice was later fired from the company, and JPMorgan filed a lawsuit late last year alleging Javice paid for a professor to create fake information on students. Javice, in return, sued the financial giant, claiming it “manufactured a for-cause termination in bad faith.”

Crucial Quote

“Rather than help students, we allege that Ms. Javice engaged in an old school fraud: she lied about Frank’s success in helping millions of students navigate the college financial aid process by making up data to support her claims,” SEC Division of Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal said in a statement last month.

Surprising Fact

Javice had appeared on Forbes’ 2019 “30 Under 30” Finance list, three years after she founded Frank as a 15-person startup designed to help college students navigate the student loan process. She had raised $16 million between 2016 and 2019.