One of fintech’s brightest young stars, Charlie Javice, the 33-year-old founder of the college financial aid startup Frank and a celebrated Forbes “30 Under 30” honoree, was sentenced to more than seven years in federal prison on Monday for orchestrating a massive fraud that duped JPMorgan Chase into acquiring her company for $175 million.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein handed down an 85-month sentence—equivalent to just over seven years—to Javice in Manhattan federal court, following her conviction in March on four felony counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Javice, who tearfully addressed the court expressing remorse, will also face three years of supervised release upon completion of her prison term. She has been ordered to forfeit $22.36 million and pay a staggering $287 million in restitution to JPMorgan, covering the acquisition price plus legal fees the bank incurred. Her co-defendant, Frank’s former Chief Growth Officer Olivier Amar, received a similar sentence and will share the restitution burden.
The case, which prosecutors described as a “biblical” betrayal of trust, exposed how Javice and Amar fabricated data to inflate Frank’s user base from a modest 300,000 active customers to an eye-popping 4.25 million—a figure that proved irresistible to the nation’s largest bank during heated acquisition talks in 2021.
From Startup Darling to Federal Defendant
Javice’s meteoric rise began in 2017 when she launched Frank, a mobile app designed to simplify the notoriously complex FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) process for college students. Marketed as a lifeline for overwhelmed undergraduates navigating financial aid, the app quickly garnered buzz in Silicon Valley and beyond. By 2019, Javice, then just 27, earned a spot on Forbes’ prestigious “30 Under 30” list in the finance category, hailed as a visionary entrepreneur tackling student debt at its roots.
Her profile soared further when JPMorgan Chase, eager to expand its reach among young consumers, entered acquisition discussions. Competing against rivals like Capital One, JPMorgan saw Frank’s purported massive database as a goldmine for cross-selling banking products to millennials and Gen Z. In a high-stakes bidding war, the bank shelled out $175 million in September 2021 to snap up the startup. Javice personally pocketed between $21 million and $29 million from the deal, according to varying estimates from her defense and prosecutors, and was promptly elevated to managing director at the bank—complete with a one-on-one meeting with CEO Jamie Dimon.
But the fairy tale unraveled almost immediately. Post-acquisition, JPMorgan attempted to leverage Frank’s customer list for marketing campaigns, only to discover that the vast majority of the 4.25 million “users” were ghosts. Emails bounced back en masse, and deeper scrutiny revealed the list was a house of cards built on deception.
The Scheme Unravels: Fake Data and Fabricated Lists
According to trial testimony and Department of Justice filings, Javice and Amar went to extraordinary lengths to manufacture the illusion of scale. When JPMorgan requested proof of Frank’s user base during due diligence, Javice allegedly hired a data scientist for $18,000 to generate millions of synthetic profiles—complete with fake names, emails, and phone numbers. To add a veneer of authenticity, they purchased lists of real individuals from third-party brokers, blending them with the fabricated entries to create what appeared to be a robust, verified database.
Javice repeatedly assured bank executives that “users” meant individuals who had fully signed up with at least four data points (name, email, phone), not mere website visitors or casual clicks. “The sole source of value in Frank was its purported relationships with millions of college-age students,” prosecutors argued, emphasizing that without the inflated numbers, the deal would never have closed.
JPMorgan’s internal review, dubbed a “huge mistake” by Dimon in congressional testimony, blamed lapses in due diligence on the frenzy to outbid competitors. The bank shuttered Frank in 2022 and filed a civil lawsuit against Javice, which was later folded into the criminal probe. Federal authorities arrested Javice in March 2023, charging her with conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud—crimes carrying up to 30 years each.
The two-week trial in early 2025 painted a damning picture. Witnesses, including the hired data scientist and former Frank employees, testified to the deliberate falsification. Javice took the stand in her defense, portraying the inflated metrics as aggressive but not fraudulent marketing. The jury, however, was unconvinced, deliberating just hours before delivering guilty verdicts on all counts.
A Tearful Apology and a Bid for Mercy
During sentencing, Javice broke down in tears, addressing Judge Hellerstein directly. “I am profoundly sorry for the pain I’ve caused,” she said, seeking forgiveness from JPMorgan shareholders, her family, former employees, investors, and even Frank’s genuine users. “I let a moment of poor judgment define me, but it does not define who I am.”
Her legal team, led by attorney Ronald Sullivan, mounted a vigorous plea for leniency, requesting just 18 months in prison. They submitted over 100 letters of support from mentors, family, and colleagues attesting to Javice’s character and the startup’s real-world impact—Frank had indeed helped thousands of students secure aid before the sale. Sullivan contrasted the case with that of Elizabeth Holmes, the Theranos founder sentenced to 11 years for her blood-testing scam, arguing Javice’s fraud caused no physical harm and that Frank provided “inconsequential” value to JPMorgan. “Ms. Javice’s sentence should be nowhere near Elizabeth Holmes’,” he urged.
Prosecutors, however, pushed for 12 years, slamming Javice’s actions as a “repeatedly lying” scheme that eroded trust in the startup ecosystem. “Javice perpetrated a $175 million fraud… even hiring a data scientist to create fake data to back up her lies,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated in a DOJ release.
Hellerstein, balancing the arguments, acknowledged JPMorgan’s own diligence shortcomings but lambasted Javice’s “duplicity.” He opted for the seven-year term, allowing her to remain out on bail pending appeals. Javice must report to prison within 60 days of exhausting her legal options.
Echoes of a Broader Scandal: The “30 Under 30” Curse?
Javice’s conviction adds her to a notorious roster of Forbes “30 Under 30” alumni who have tumbled into legal peril, fueling online memes and critiques of the list’s vetting process. She’s in good—or rather, infamous—company with Martin Shkreli, the “Pharma Bro” convicted of securities fraud after his 2012 nod, and Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX founder serving 25 years for crypto crimes following his 2022 recognition.
Tech entrepreneur Chris Bakke quipped on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this year: “The Forbes 30 Under 30 have collectively raised $5.3B in funding. The Forbes 30 Under 30 have also been arrested for frauds and scams worth over $18.5B.” As one Guardian columnist wryly observed, the list seems to breed as many jail terms as success stories.
For JPMorgan, the saga serves as a costly lesson in acquisition haste. The bank, which clawed back Javice’s unvested shares and bonuses in a separate civil suit, has since tightened its startup vetting protocols. Dimon, in a recent earnings call, reflected: “We learned the hard way—scale isn’t everything if it’s built on sand.”
As Javice appeals her sentence, her story stands as a cautionary tale of ambition unchecked. Once a symbol of youthful innovation, she now embodies the perils of Silicon Valley’s high-wire act, where a single lie can topple an empire.