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A Manhattan federal jury delivered a dramatic verdict on Friday, convicting Frank founder Charlie Javice and former executive Olivier Amar of masterminding an elaborate scheme that deceived JPMorgan Chase & Co. into paying $175 million for a now-defunct student financial aid startup.

A High-Stakes Deception

After two days of deliberations, the jury found Javice and Amar guilty of securities fraud, bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy, concluding a lengthy trial presided over by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York.

Prosecutors laid out a web of deceit, alleging that the pair exaggerated Frank’s user base, claiming the platform had 4.25 million registered students. In reality, the number was only in the low hundreds of thousands.

The Illusion of Growth

In 2021 and 2022, Javice and Amar allegedly supplied JPMorgan with falsified data to make Frank appear as an attractive acquisition, only to later fabricate more numbers to sustain the lie post-acquisition.

Javice’s legal team countered that JPMorgan was fully aware of what it was buying but cried fraud only after the deal soured. At the heart of the trial was the definition of a "user." Prosecutors insisted that a Frank user was someone who had actively created an account and provided personal data, while the defense argued a broader interpretation, akin to website traffic metrics used by Google Analytics.

From “30 Under 30” to Infamy

Javice was once celebrated as a rising star in entrepreneurship, earning a coveted spot on Forbes’ "30 Under 30" list in 2019. However, following the indictment, she was unceremoniously inducted into Forbes’ "Hall of Shame," alongside disgraced figures like Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, and Martin Shkreli.

The Legal Battle and Its Key Players

The prosecution was led by Micah Fergenson, Rushmi Bhaskaran, Nicholas Chiuchiolo, and Georgia Kostopoulos of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Javice’s defense was mounted by a high-powered legal team from Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC, the Baez Law Firm, and Ronald Sullivan Law PLLC.

Amar, equally fortified in his defense, was represented by Sean Buckley, Jonathan Cogan, Steven Kobre, Alexandria Swette, Matthew Menchel, Jay Mandel, and Erika Berman of Kobre & Kim LLP.

What Comes Next?

The conviction marks a stunning downfall for a once-promising startup and raises broader questions about due diligence in high-stakes acquisitions. Sentencing will determine just how steep the price will be for Javice and Amar, whose ambitions have now unraveled in a courtroom reckoning.