The Department of Justice filed criminal charges against Charlie Javice Tuesday, alleging the former Frank CEO committed fraud when she sold her financial aid startup to JPMorgan Chase in September 2021 for $175 million. She faces more than 100 years in jail if convicted.
The DOJ and the Securities and Exchange Commission both filed lawsuits against Javice Tuesday, escalating the legal predicament of the Frank founder. Javice, 31, is a onetime media darling who was heralded for trying to simplify the college financial aid process. According to the DOJ’s lawsuit, Javice “falsely and dramatically” inflated the number of customers Frank had in order to induce JPMorgan, one of the world’s biggest banks, to buy the company. Javice allegedly claimed that the startup had 4.25 million customers, but in reality, Frank had only about 300,000 clients, according to the lawsuit. Javice stood to gain more than $45 million from the fraud, the DOJ said.
