Startup founder Charlie Javice was sentenced Monday to seven years in prison for defrauding JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million—a crime the judge described as “biblical.”
“Among the many commandments in the bible are the commandments of just weights and measures. Yours was not a just weight and measure,” Judge Alvin Hellerstein said during the sentencing hearing.
Javice was convicted of fraud in March for misrepresenting her financial aid startup, with prosecutors originally seeking a 12-year sentence.
Before the sentence was handed down, Javice spoke to express remorse and apologize.
“At 28 I did something that runs against the grain of my upbringing,” Javice said. “I made choices that I will spend my entire life regretting.”
She turned to her parents, tearfully asking for their forgiveness.
“I miss being a source of pride for my family,” Javice added.
“You’re a good person,” Hellerstein responded. “You’ve done a bad thing, and I have to punish you.”
Javice, 33, founded Frank in 2017 and served as its CEO until its acquisition in September 2021. The startup aimed to simplify the process of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Prosecutors said Javice fraudulently claimed Frank had 4 million customers by counting anyone who clicked on the site as a user, while in reality, the company had only several hundred thousand.
Had JPMorgan Chase known the truth—that Frank had only a few hundred thousand users—it would not have acquired the startup, which ultimately held no value for the bank, according to prosecutors.
“The sole source of value in Frank was its purported relationships with millions of college-age students. Those millions of relationships with students turned out to be illusory and, as a result, so too was Frank’s value,” prosecutors said.
The defense argued for a lighter sentence, framing Javice’s actions as a “singular lapse in judgment at age 28.” They highlighted that she “helped real families achieve real dreams—first-generation Americans, children of immigrants, young people from underserved communities who saw college not as an entitlement but as a distant hope made suddenly possible.”
Additionally, the defense noted the “chorus of support” from over 100 people who submitted letters on her behalf.
“Together they form a rare portrait of a young woman whose compassion, loyalty, and reliability stand out in a courtroom where such qualities are seldom constant. The refrain is the same: she is the one people call when everything is falling apart,” defense attorneys said.
