Charlie Javice

Charlie Javice (born March 14, 1993) is an American indicted for fraud in relation to Frank, a student financial aid application assistance company she founded. In January 2023, she was accused of fraud relating to the sale of her company to JPMorgan Chase for $175 million. Javice was charged on April 4, 2023, in Manhattan federal court with a four-count grand jury indictment for securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy.

Early life and education
Javice grew up in Westchester County, New York. She is Jewish. Her father worked at a hedge fund while her mother is a life coach and former teacher. Javice attended the French-American School of New York, a private school that provides education from Nursery to the 12th grade.

In 2013, Javice graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania after three years with a bachelor's degree in finance and legal studies. As a freshman at Wharton, she founded PoverUp, an online platform to help students learn more about starting micro-finance clubs. During her sophomore year, she became a member of the Board of Overseers for the University of Pennsylvania Hillel organization, associated with Hillel International, a Jewish campus organization. She continued in this capacity until 2015.

Career
In 2016, Javice founded Frank, which assists student borrowers in obtaining loans and financial aid.

In 2017, the United States Department of Education accused Frank of potentially misleading customers to believe that it was affiliated with the US government, forcing the company to change its website from frankfafsa.com to frank.com. Frank settled with the Department of Education in 2018.

In 2018, Javice was sued by Adi Omesy, a co-founder of Frank, over wage theft in Israel. In 2021, she was ordered to pay $35,000.

In September 2021, she sold the company to JPMorgan Chase for $175 million and was appointed managing director at JPMorgan, overseeing student-focused products at Chase. She was suspended in September 2022 following a lawsuit by her employer, and was terminated for cause in November 2022.

In November 2022 Javice was listed on Forbes 30 Under 30, a pick the publication regretted a year later, placing Javice on its Hall of Shame, featuring ten picks it wished it could take back.

Lawsuit and criminal charges
In 2022, JPMorgan filed a lawsuit for fraud claiming that the data reported by Frank was largely a fabrication, and alleged that Javice paid a data science professor $18,000 for a list of more than four million fake student names to convince JPMorgan to purchase Frank. Javice countersued JPMorgan, claiming that she was being scapegoated for their own faulty due diligence. On April 4, 2023, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Javice with wire fraud affecting a financial institution, securities fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy. The same day, she was also charged with fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. She was released on a two million dollar bond, on condition that she surrender her passports and restrict her travel to New York City and southern Florida, and agreeing not to contact witnesses who are involved in the case. A four-count grand jury indictment made public on May 18, 2023, in Manhattan federal court charged Javice with securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and conspiracy.

Awards and recognition

 * 2011: Ranked 99th on list of Most Creative People by Fast Company
 * 2019: Named in Forbes 30 Under 30 – Finance
 * 2019: Named in Crain's New York Business 40 Under 40
 * 2023: Named in Forbes 30 Under 30 Hall of Shame

Personal life
Javice lives in Miami, where she purchased a condominium for $1.4 million.