Financial aid startup Frank and Forbes under 30 graduates founder Charlie Javis were sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud.
The Fintech startup was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2021 for $175 million. The bank later accused Havis of lying about his client base. The founder claimed that when they actually had 300,000 customers, the company had 4 million customers. Obviously, JPMorgan Chase did not do due diligence before agreeing to buy the Frank.
During the trial, former Frank engineer Patrick Vover testified that Havis asked him to create fake user data before the sale. When he declined, Javice asked Adam Kapelner, a mathematics professor and data scientist, to help him create synthetic data. Capelner provided important testimony from the prosecutor.
Along with her co-defendant, Frank's Chief Growth Officer Olivier Amar, Havis is liable for paying $278.5 million in restitution.