Charlie Javice, the founder of the fintech startup Frank and a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud.
Frank was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2021 for $175 million. However, the bank later accused Javice of misrepresenting the company’s customer base, claiming Frank had 4 million users when, in reality, it only had around 300,000. This case highlighted JPMorgan’s failure to conduct thorough due diligence before the acquisition.
During the trial, Frank’s former engineer Patrick Vovor testified that Javice had asked him to fabricate user data ahead of the sale. After he refused, Javice turned to math professor and data expert Adam Kapelner, who helped generate fake information. Kapelner later provided crucial evidence for the prosecution.
Javice, along with Frank’s former Chief Growth Officer Olivier Amar, has also been ordered to pay $278.5 million in restitution to JPMorgan Chase.
