NEW YORK (AP) — Charlie Javice, the founder of a startup focused on improving the financial aid application process, has been sentenced to over seven years in prison for deceiving JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million by falsely inflating the number of students her company, Frank, served.
At the hearing in Manhattan, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein described Javice's actions as a large fraud, stemming from her 2021 scheme where she claimed Frank had over four million users while the actual count was below 300,000. Despite her previous charitable endeavors, including running soup kitchens at a young age, the judge focused on the severity of the fraud.
Defense attorney Ronald Sullivan argued that Javice’s actions differed significantly from those of Elizabeth Holmes, highlighting that Frank's application genuinely worked, unlike the false promises of Theranos. He urged the court to consider the context of a 28-year-old facing major corporate players during the negotiations.
The prosecution had sought a 12-year sentence, citing Javice's own text expressing disbelief at Holmes’s lengthy prison term. They portrayed Javice as motivated by greed, willing to mislead to secure a $29 million payday from the sale of her company.
After expressing remorse and seeking forgiveness, Javice was left with a glaring legal precedent as the case spotlights an ongoing trend of fraudulent activities among startup founders. Her conviction serves as a cautionary tale amidst growing scrutiny on the integrity of tech startups.
