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Fortune
Fortune
Tristan Bove

A millennial founder who sold her company to JP Morgan for $175 million allegedly paid a college professor $18K to fabricate 4 million accounts. Their email exchange is a doozy

Student debt protesters holding signs. (Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

A fintech startup bought by JP Morgan Chase for millions may have been built on a bed of lies, according to a new lawsuit filed by JP Morgan. And if the investment bank is to be believed, it all went wrong with an $18,000 check to a New York City-area data science professor.

On Dec. 22, JP Morgan filed a lawsuit against Charlie Javice, the millennial founder of student aid facilitating platform Frank, and the company’s chief growth officer Olivier Amar, claiming the pair fabricated around 4 million nonexistent accounts that they said used their service, which JP Morgan purchased for $175 million in Sep. 2021.

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