Charlie Javice

Charlie Javice
Born:	1992 (some sources cite March 14, 1993) Westchester County, New York
Charges:	Securities fraud, Wire fraud, Bank fraud, Conspiracy
Sentence:	85 months (7 years) federal prison, 3 years supervised release
Facility:
Status:	Free on bail pending appeal

Charlie Javice (born circa 1992) is a French-American entrepreneur and convicted felon who founded Frank, a financial technology startup that aimed to simplify the college financial aid application process.

In September 2021, JPMorgan Chase acquired Frank for $175 million based on Javice's representations that the company had over 4.25 million users. In reality, Frank had fewer than 300,000 customers.

On March 28, 2025, a federal jury in Manhattan convicted Javice on all four counts—securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy—after a six-week trial. On September 29, 2025, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein sentenced Javice to 85 months in federal prison, ordered her to forfeit $22.36 million, and jointly with co-defendant Olivier Amar, to pay $287.5 million in restitution to JPMorgan Chase.

The case has been cited by prosecutors as part of an "alarming trend" of startup founders engaging in fraud to make their companies attractive to investors and acquirers. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has called the Frank acquisition a "huge mistake."

Background and Early Life

Charlie Javice grew up in Westchester County, New York. Her father, Didier Javice, is a French financier who worked at a hedge fund, while her mother, Natalie Rosin, is a life coach and former teacher. Javice's parents divorced, and she and her brother Elie split time between their father's townhouse in Mamaroneck and their mother's home in Larchmont, New York.

Javice holds dual citizenship in the United States and France, obtaining French citizenship through her father. She is Jewish and was active in Jewish community organizations during college.

Education

Javice attended the French-American School of New York (FASNY), an elite bilingual private institution in Westchester County where annual tuition ranges from $34,000 for nursery students to $41,000 for high school students. Former classmates described the atmosphere at FASNY as competitive and intense, with a culture of "success at any cost."

During high school, Javice demonstrated early leadership and social impact inclinations, founding a soup kitchen to feed the homeless and organizing a book drive for underprivileged children. She graduated from FASNY in 2010.

In 2010, Javice was admitted early to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics with a concentration in finance in three years, graduating in 2013.

Early Ventures

PoverUp (2009–2013)

Javice's entrepreneurial career began at age 17 when she founded PoverUp, an online platform designed to help students learn about and establish microfinance clubs to address global poverty. In spring 2009, Javice attended the Microfinance Club of New York, a startup event hosted by New York University, where she networked on behalf of PoverUp.

At that event, she met Howard Finkelstein, an attorney who advises startups. Finkelstein later recalled that despite her youth, Javice moved through the room "like a seasoned professional, easily shaking hands and making small talk with executives." He noted, "She could start conversations with anyone and continue endlessly." Because she was only 17, Finkelstein required parental permission before agreeing to advise her.

Javice's father, Didier, sat on PoverUp's board, and her brother Elie served as Chief Technical Officer. The startup sought partnerships with prestigious institutions including Harvard and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2011, during her sophomore year at Wharton, Javice was ranked 99th on Fast Company's list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business for founding PoverUp.

Despite generating media attention and appearing on CNBC, PoverUp never gained significant traction. Finkelstein described it as "a very grandiose idea" that "didn't really get that far off the ground." Javice discontinued work on PoverUp during her senior year at Wharton.

TAPD Inc. (2013–2016)

After graduating from Wharton in 2013, Javice incorporated TAPD Inc. in Delaware. Initially, the company focused on building a job-search product. Javice later pivoted to developing an alternative credit scoring system for young adults who lacked traditional credit histories.

According to Javice, the credit scoring venture faced regulatory hurdles, requiring state-by-state compliance approval that would cost far more than the $10 million in seed funding she was seeking. TAPD Inc. would eventually be rebranded as Frank.

Frank

Founding and Growth (2016–2021)

In 2016 or 2017 (sources vary), Javice pivoted TAPD Inc. to focus on simplifying the college financial aid application process, rebranding the company as Frank. The platform was designed to help students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), a complex government form required for most financial aid.

Frank's business model charged students a fee—typically a few hundred dollars—to help them navigate the FAFSA process and maximize their financial aid packages. The company positioned itself as an online "TurboTax for financial aid," promising to reduce the time needed to complete the 100+ question FAFSA form to just minutes.

Early Controversies

Co-Founder Lawsuit (2017–2021): In 2017, Adi Omesy, a co-founder of Frank who served as Chief Technology Officer, sued Javice and the company in Israel for wage theft and failure to deliver promised equity. In 2021, a court ordered Javice to pay Omesy $35,000.

Department of Education Settlement (2017–2018): In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education accused Frank of potentially misleading customers into believing the company was affiliated with the federal government. Frank's original domain was frankfafsa.com, which the Department claimed infringed on its trademark rights to the FAFSA acronym. The matter was settled in 2018, with Frank changing its domain name and clarifying it was not a government partner.

FTC Warning (2020): The Federal Trade Commission sent a warning letter to Frank regarding potentially misleading claims about accessing coronavirus relief funds. This followed bipartisan congressional calls for an FTC investigation into Frank's practices.

Funding and Investors

Frank raised capital from several prominent investors, including:

• Apollo Global Management (Marc Rowan, co-founder)
• Aleph (Michael Eisenberg, partner)
• Reach Capital
• Slow Ventures
• Tusk Venture Partners
• Bradley Tusk
• Lemonade
• WeWork

By late 2018, Frank claimed to have helped approximately 300,000 students access $7 billion in financial aid.

JPMorgan Acquisition (2021)

In 2021, Javice began pursuing the sale of Frank to larger financial institutions. Two major banks, including JPMorgan Chase, expressed interest. Javice repeatedly represented to both banks that Frank had 4.25 million customers or "users," explicitly defining users as individuals who had signed up for a Frank account and provided at least four data fields: first name, last name, email address, and phone number.

On September 14, 2021, JPMorgan Chase announced the acquisition of Frank for $175 million. In a press release, the bank stated Frank served five million students at more than 6,000 colleges across the country. Jennifer Piepszak, then co-CEO of consumer and community banking at JPMorgan, stated the acquisition would help the bank "reach and serve students and their families."

As part of the deal:

• Javice received over $21 million for her equity stake in Frank
• Javice was to receive an additional $20 million retention bonus
• Javice was appointed Managing Director at JPMorgan, overseeing student-focused products
• Fifteen Frank employees joined JPMorgan

The Fraud

Fabricating Customer Data

According to federal prosecutors and trial testimony, Frank's actual customer count was fewer than 300,000—approximately 7% of what Javice represented to JPMorgan.

When JPMorgan sought to verify Frank's user data during due diligence, Javice and co-defendant Olivier Amar, Frank's Chief Growth Officer, fabricated a dataset. Prosecutors established the following sequence of events:

Internal Request Refused: Javice first asked Patrick Vovor, Frank's director of engineering, to create an artificially generated ("synthetic") dataset. Vovor raised concerns about the legality of the request, to which Javice responded in French: "We don't want to end up in orange jumpsuits." Vovor refused.

Hiring Outside Data Scientist: Javice then approached Adam Kapelner, an associate professor of mathematics at Queens College whom she knew from their time at Wharton. She paid him $18,000 to create a synthetic dataset of over 4.25 million fake student profiles.

Third-Party Verification: Javice provided the synthetic dataset to a third-party vendor agreed upon by JPMorgan, causing the vendor to confirm to the bank that the dataset contained over 4.25 million rows.

Purchasing Real Data: Simultaneously, Javice and Amar purchased a list of 4.5 million real college students on the open market for $105,000 to cover up their misrepresentations. However, this dataset did not contain all the data fields Javice had claimed Frank maintained. Additional data was purchased to augment the list.

Discovery of the Fraud

After the acquisition closed, JPMorgan employees asked Javice to provide Frank's user data to launch a marketing campaign targeting the supposed customer base. Javice provided what she claimed was Frank's user data—actually the data purchased on the open market.

When JPMorgan sent marketing emails to 400,000 purported Frank customers, approximately 70% of the emails bounced back as undeliverable, and only 1.1% were opened. This prompted an internal investigation that revealed the extent of the fraud.

Litigation and Criminal Charges

JPMorgan Civil Lawsuit (December 2022)

Javice was suspended from JPMorgan in September 2022 and terminated for cause in November 2022. In December 2022, JPMorgan filed a civil lawsuit against Javice and Amar in Delaware federal court, alleging fraud and seeking recovery of the $175 million acquisition price.

Javice countersued, claiming she was being scapegoated for JPMorgan's own inadequate due diligence and alleging wrongful termination.

Frank Website Shutdown (January 2023)

JPMorgan shut down the Frank website in January 2023, just over a year after the acquisition.

Criminal Indictment (April 2023)

On April 4, 2023, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York filed a four-count indictment charging Javice with:

1. Securities fraud
2. Wire fraud affecting a financial institution
3. Bank fraud
4. Conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud

The same day, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a separate civil fraud complaint against Javice.

Javice was arrested and released on a $2 million personal recognizance bond, secured by her home and co-signed by her parents. Conditions of release included surrendering her passports and restricting travel to New York City and southern Florida.

Legal Fee Controversy

In a separate legal battle in Delaware Chancery Court, Javice successfully argued that the terms of the Frank acquisition—which made her an employee of JPMorgan—required the bank to cover her legal defense costs. The Delaware court ruled in 2023 that JPMorgan was obligated to advance legal fees for both Javice and Amar.

By November 2025, JPMorgan had paid approximately $115 million in legal fees for the two defendants, according to court filings. This amount far exceeded the $30 million spent on Elizabeth Holmes's defense in the Theranos case.

Trial and Conviction

Trial (February–March 2025)

Javice's trial began on February 18, 2025, in Manhattan federal court before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, age 91. The trial lasted approximately six weeks.

Key prosecution witnesses included:

• Patrick Vovor, Frank's former director of engineering, who testified about Javice's request to create synthetic data and her "orange jumpsuit" comment
• Adam Kapelner, the Queens College mathematics professor who created the fake dataset for $18,000
• JPMorgan employees who testified about the bank's due diligence process and the discovery of the fraud

Defense attorneys Ronald Sullivan and Jose Baez argued that JPMorgan was experiencing "buyer's remorse" after the acquisition and attempting to blame Javice for its own inadequate due diligence. Sullivan characterized the case as "a 28-year-old versus 300 investment bankers from the largest bank in the world."

Co-defendant Olivier Amar pursued an "antagonistic defense," essentially arguing that Javice had deceived him just as she deceived the banks. Javice's motion to sever her trial from Amar's was denied.

Verdict (March 28, 2025)

On March 28, 2025, after approximately six hours of deliberation, the jury found both Javice and Amar guilty on all four counts: securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy.

Prosecutor Nicholas Chiuchiolo told jurors that Javice and Amar had "time and again" pitched the business falsely, selling Frank for "$175 million worth of lies." He argued that while Javice and Amar "became multimillionaires," JPMorgan "got a spreadsheet with fake names."

Sentencing

Pre-Sentencing

Following her conviction, Javice worked as a Pilates instructor in South Florida, teaching classes several hours per day. Her lawyers cited this profession in arguing she should not be required to wear an ankle monitor before sentencing, claiming it would hinder her ability to teach. Judge Hellerstein rejected this argument and ordered GPS monitoring due to flight risk concerns.

In pre-sentencing filings, prosecutors sought a 12-year prison sentence, citing federal guidelines and a 2022 text message in which Javice called Elizabeth Holmes's 11-year sentence "ridiculous."

Javice's defense team requested an 18-month sentence, arguing:

• The loss was "not consequential" to a bank as large as JPMorgan (with $4 trillion in assets)
• Frank had delivered "genuine social good" by helping students navigate financial aid
• The case lacked "devastating human impact" typically associated with lengthy fraud sentences

Marc Rowan, CEO of Apollo Global Management and a Frank investor, wrote to Judge Hellerstein seeking leniency, describing Javice as marked by "passion, creativity, intelligence and empathy."

Sentencing Hearing (September 29, 2025)

At her sentencing hearing, Javice delivered an emotional statement, speaking through tears:

"At 28 I did something that runs against the grain of my upbringing. I made choices that I will spend my entire life regretting."

"Not a day passes that I do not feel profound remorse. I am haunted that my failure has transformed something meaningful into something infamous."

She apologized to JPMorgan shareholders, Frank employees and investors, and students who relied on the company, stating: "I am asking with all my heart for forgiveness."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Micah Fergenson argued for a lengthy sentence, stating that Javice was driven by greed when she saw she could pocket $29 million from the sale. "Ms. Javice had it dangling in front of her and she lied to get it," he said. Referring to the acquisition, Fergenson declared: "JPMorgan didn't get a functioning business, they acquired a crime scene."

Judge Hellerstein acknowledged Javice's statement as "very moving" and told her: "You're a good person. You've done a bad thing, and I have to punish you."

Describing the crime as "biblical," the judge referenced commandments regarding "just weights and measures," stating: "Yours was not a just weight and measure."

While criticizing JPMorgan's due diligence failures—stating "they have a lot to blame themselves" for—Hellerstein emphasized: "I am punishing her conduct and not JPMorgan's stupidity."

Sentence

Judge Hellerstein sentenced Javice to:

• 85 months (7 years) federal imprisonment
• 3 years supervised release
• $22,360,977.48 in forfeiture
• $287,501,078.00 in restitution to JPMorgan Chase (joint and several with Olivier Amar)

The restitution amount includes the $175 million acquisition price plus over $100 million in legal fees JPMorgan was required to pay for Javice and Amar's defense.

Javice was permitted to remain free on bail pending appeal, with Judge Hellerstein citing her fertility treatments and desire to start a family as factors.

Appeal

On November 13, 2025, Javice filed a notice of appeal against her conviction and sentence.

Javice has retained prominent appellate attorney Alexandra Shapiro, who also represents Sam Bankman-Fried and Bill Hwang in challenging their fraud convictions.

According to court filings, Javice's appeal will raise several issues:

• The denial of her motion to sever her trial from Amar's, arguing she faced "two prosecutors"—both Amar and the government
• Evidentiary rulings by Judge Hellerstein
• Jury instructions

Co-Defendant Olivier Amar

Olivier Amar, age 51, served as Frank's Chief Growth Officer. An Israeli who immigrated from Canada, Amar was convicted alongside Javice on all four counts.

On November 5, 2025, Judge Hellerstein sentenced Amar to 68 months (5 years, 8 months) in federal prison. The judge stated that while Amar was "not the instigator of the fraud," he was "intimately involved" and "a key part of it."

Amar was also ordered to pay $223 million in restitution. Before sentencing, he expressed remorse, stating he was "heartbroken by the suffering caused in the aftermath of Frank's downfall."

Recognition and Awards

Prior to Criminal Charges:

• 2011': Ranked 99th on Fast Companys 100 Most Creative People in Business (for PoverUp)
• 2019: Forbes 30 Under 30 (Finance category)
• 2019: Crain's New York Business 40 Under 40

Subsequent Reversal:

• 2023: Forbes added Javice to its "Hall of Shame," listing her among ten 30 Under 30 picks the publication regretted

Comparisons to Other Cases

Javice's case has drawn frequent comparisons to Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding investors about her company's blood-testing technology. Defense attorneys argued Javice's case was distinguishable because Frank's product actually worked, unlike Theranos's technology which "endangered patients."

Prosecutors cited Javice's 2022 text message calling Holmes's sentence "ridiculous" as evidence of her attitude toward accountability for startup fraud.

Gregory Coleman, the retired FBI special agent who investigated Jordan Belfort ("The Wolf of Wall Street"), told Fortune he saw similarities between Javice and Holmes, though he believed Javice was more aware her overstated claims had "snowballed into outright lies" rather than showing the "psychopathic tendencies" evident in Holmes's testimony.

Personal Life

Javice lives in Miami Beach, Florida, with her partner, a U.S. citizen. Court filings indicate she has been undergoing fertility treatments and wishes to start a family, which Judge Hellerstein cited as a factor in allowing her to remain free on bail pending appeal.

Her brother, Elie Javice, serves as Chief Digital Officer of Popeyes.

Business Entities

Founded by Javice:

• PoverUp (2009–2013) – Microfinance education platform
• TAPD Inc. (incorporated 2013) – Holding company, later doing business as Frank
• Frank (2016/2017–2023) – FAFSA assistance platform, acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2021, shut down in January 2023

Terminology

• FAFSA: Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a federal government form students use to apply for financial aid for college or graduate school.

• Synthetic data: Artificially generated data designed to mimic the statistical properties of real data, used legitimately in testing and research but employed fraudulently in this case to fabricate customer records.

• Due diligence: The investigation and analysis conducted by a potential buyer before a corporate acquisition to verify claims made by the target company.

• Securities fraud: A federal crime involving deception in connection with the purchase or sale of securities, including making material misrepresentations to investors or acquirers.

• Wire fraud: A federal crime involving the use of electronic communications to execute a scheme to defraud.

• Bank fraud: A federal crime involving a scheme to defraud a financial institution or obtain assets under its control through false pretenses.

• Restitution: Court-ordered payment by a convicted defendant to compensate victims for financial losses resulting from the crime.

• Forfeiture: Court-ordered surrender of assets obtained through criminal activity.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What was Charlie Javice convicted of?

Charlie Javice was convicted of securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy for deceiving JPMorgan Chase into acquiring her fintech startup Frank for $175 million by fabricating over 4 million fake customer accounts.

Q: What was Frank?

Frank was a fintech startup that helped students apply for federal financial aid. JPMorgan Chase acquired it in 2021 for $175 million, believing it had 4.25 million customers when it actually had fewer than 300,000.

Q: How long is Charlie Javice's prison sentence?

Charlie Javice was sentenced to 85 months (7 years) in federal prison on September 29, 2025. She was also ordered to forfeit $22.36 million and pay $287.5 million in restitution jointly with her co-defendant.

Q: How did JPMorgan discover the fraud?

After the acquisition, JPMorgan sent marketing emails to purported Frank customers. Approximately 70% bounced back as undeliverable, prompting an investigation that revealed the fabricated customer data.

Q: Is Charlie Javice in prison?

As of November 2025, Charlie Javice remains free on bail pending her appeal. She filed a notice of appeal on November 13, 2025.