Charlie Javice alleges it was Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s powerful billionaire CEO, who took a personal interest in the bank’s acquisition of her financial aid site Frank, telling her in July of 2021 that he thought JPMorgan should “get the deal done,” according to court documents filed Monday in Delaware District Court.
The deal did indeed get done. In September 2021, just two months after Javice says the CEO spoke to her, JPMorgan Chase closed its $175 million purchase of Frank, a company it believed had at least 4.25 million users. It took several months for JPMorgan Chase to figure out the truth—that Javice had lied and Frank had less than 300,000 customers. JPMorgan claimed the Frank founder and Olivier Amar, Frank’s chief growth officer, committed securities fraud, fraud with the contract, and conspiracy to commit fraud, as well as aiding and abetting fraud for allegedly fabricating around 4 million nonexistent accounts that they said used Frank’s services, according to a December lawsuit from JPMorgan Chase. (You can read Fortune's account of the whole saga and how JP Morgan got tied up with Frank here.)
