It can help detect fraud, gain efficiencies, and even power self-driving cars. And so-called synthetic data also happens to be at the core of a case that has pitted a young fintech entrepreneur, accused of using the tech tool, against JPMorgan Chase, one of the world’s biggest banks, which bought her student loan company, Frank, and later sued her for fraud.
In early April the case against entrepreneur Charlie Javice, 31, was back in the headlines after she was arrested amid criminal charges filed by the Department of Justice. The DOJ alleges that the former Frank CEO committed fraud when she sold Frank to JPMorgan. Javice “falsely and dramatically” inflated the number of customers Frank had in order to induce JPMorgan to buy the company, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which is part of the DOJ. The Securities and Exchange Commission separately sued Javice, claiming she concocted a fraudulent scheme to hide the fact Frank had identifying data for only about 300,000 students, much lower than the 4.25 million customers she repeatedly touted, the April 4 lawsuit said.
