Charlie Javice, founder of Frank. Photo:
Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg/Getty
Charlie Javice, the founder of the student aid startup Frank, has been convicted of defrauding JP Morgan Chase of $175 million.
Javice was in her mid-20s when she became the founder and CEO of Frank, a company that boasted of helping to simplify the Free Application for Federal Student Aid process, the Associated Press reported.
On Friday, March 28, a “unanimous jury” found Javice, now 32, and former Frank Chief Growth Officer Olivier Amar guilty of orchestrating a “brazen fraud,” having falsely claimed that the company had “millions of customers when, in reality, it had just a fraction of that number,” according to a press release from the New York Southern District Attorney’s Office.
The pair fabricated data to lie to major financial institutions to sell their business for $175 million.
“And while Javice and Amar may have thought that they could lie and cheat their way to a huge payday, their lies caught up with them, and they now stand convicted by a jury of their peers in federal court,” the DA press release continues.
Charlie Javice, founder of Frank, center, exits federal court in New York, US, on Thursday, March 27, 2025. Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg/Getty
Javice was found guilty of three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud, The New York Times reported. She and Amar face several decades in prison.
Javice’s startup Frank, focused on simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid Application (FAFSA) process for undergraduate and graduate students seeking aid to finance higher education. The service claimed to help answer the lengthy list of questions prospective students are asked to fill out within minutes.
In a 2018 interview with Business Insider, Javice claimed to have helped over 300,000 students receive the financial aid they needed to attend college.
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The jury reached a verdict after a five-week trial held in Manhattan. Javice’s lawyer, Jose Baez, claimed that JP Morgan Chase understood what they were taking on in their deal with Frank, the Associate Press reported.
The outlet further confirmed that Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein would hear arguments in the coming weeks regarding whether Javice and Amar would need to wear ankle monitors while awaiting sentencing. Javice has been free on $2 million bail since her initial arrest in 2023. She lives in Florida.
Javice’s fraud case has drawn comparisons to that of Elizabeth Holmes’ own fraud conviction for health company Theranos. Holmes was convicted on four counts of fraud after lying to Theranos investors about her blood testing technology’s reliability and was later sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2022. Both were young, female startup founders in a male-dominated technology space.
Elizabeth Holmes. Ethan Pines/Forbes Collection/Corbis via Getty
Holmes’ case received greater national attention from Hulu’s 2022 show based on the crime, The Dropout, starring Amanda Seyfried in the titular role.
Javice’s sentencing will take place in August, per CNBC.
