JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been awarded a total of $142 million in legal fees for Charlie Jarvis and Olivier Hamard, the founders and chief marketing officers of financial assistance startup Frank.
JPMorgan acquired Mr. Frank for $175 million in 2021, but earlier in Thailand Mr. Jarvis and Mr. Amar were convicted of defrauding banks by inflating Mr. Frank's customer numbers, and Mr. Jarvis was sentenced to seven years in prison. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, JPMorgan is now seeking to reverse a judge's order requiring the bank to pay the pair's legal costs.
Michael Pittinger, a lawyer representing JPMorgan, said Jarvis' legal team claimed expenses such as luxury hotel upgrades, 24-hour work days and cellulite butter.
“To my knowledge, there has never been a case of such extreme abuse,” Pittinger said.
A spokeswoman for Ms. Jarvis told the Journal that she complied with JPMorgan's policies and “did not claim expenses or verify expenditures.”
“As an employee, she purchased ice cream and other products in accordance with JPMorgan's Code of Conduct and did not seek a refund for anything that was not expressly permitted by the guidelines provided,” a spokesperson for Ms. Jarvis said.