by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 4– JPMorgan Chase bought a start-up called Frank, which claimed to have 4 million students signed up to file their FAFSA forms, for $175 million. Then Chase learned Frank had only 300,000 customers.
On April 4, 2023, Frank founder Ms. Charlie Javice was brought before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Barbara C. Moses and was freed on $2 million bond.
On January 24, 2025 Inner City Press published the first book on the case, Fintech Fraudster? here
Inner City Press live tweeted the more than two hour hearing on January 23, here. Trial was delayed one week to February 18; the motion to sever was denied. The basis for the delay was late production of Amar's Google Drive, which Judge Alvin Hellerstein criticized.
On January 27 Javice argued for inclusion of her two expert witnesses, Ms. Carla Holtze Ceel on digital analytics, and Dr. Konstantinos Psounis on "the role of synthetic data."
On January 28 Javice and Amar filed a motion to compel JPM Chase to disclose the names of 145 employee they claimed did not use messaging applications for work.
On January 31, Chase's lawyers at Davis Polk opposed giving any names, arguing that the request for names was "for the sole purpose of impeaching prospective Government witnesses."
On February 4 the defendants reduced their request to eight staffers. Full thread here, including
Judge Hellerstein: Who was the second bank?
Amar's lawyer: Capital One. But shouldn't the jury have to decide whether Capital One or JPM Chase was the one they say was defrauded?
Judge: Motion denied. Figure out who'll speak
Continued thread on X for Subscriber here and Substack here
This case is USA v. Javice, et al., 1:23-cr-251 (Hellerstein)
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