It’s Fraud (Turtles) All the Way Down

Former, "30 Under 20," business star Charlie Javice has been found guilty of fraud while selling her company to JP Morgan to the tune of about $175,000,000.00.

She faked her customer numbers during the sale.

If this had not come out before JP Morgan had flipped it to retail investors. (aka "suckers")

Am I the only one who thinks that a this is more the rule than the exception, and we only see prosecutions when the big fish lose money?

Charlie Javice, who made big headlines in 2023 when JPMorgan Chase accused her of faking her start-up’s customer list, was found guilty in federal court Friday of three counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud.

She now faces the possibility of decades in prison.

The bank has its own civil lawsuit on standby as it attempts to claw back some of the $175 million it paid for her company, Frank. It sued her three years ago, and Ms. Javice was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport not long after that.

Frank, which was founded in 2016, aimed to help customers fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid at a time when the FAFSA was notoriously complicated. Ms. Javice, 32, quickly became a go-to quote for journalists writing about paying for college and turned up on lists of under-30 and under-40 up-and-comers.

Gee, we are going to make millions of dollars helping people filling out financial aid forms, and you are going to dominate the market because ………?

Bueller?  Bueller?

This isn't even a business model?  It's sillier than WeWork's plans for world domination, because colleges already have financial aid offices that help students for free, because the Colleges want their f%$#ing money?

Not long after Ms. Javice sold Frank to JPMorgan, there was trouble. The bank ran a test of Frank’s customer list, hoping to persuade its young customers to open Chase accounts. Of 400,000 outbound emails, just 28 percent arrived successfully in an inbox.

………

An internal investigation ensued, and the bank claimed to have found evidence that Ms. Javice and Olivier Amar, Frank’s chief growth and acquisition officer, had faked much of its customer list. JPMorgan sued her, and the federal government followed with its own charges, which resulted in the verdict Friday.

But we do find why they wanted to buy her sh%$ idea:

Sweet.

………

During the trial, JPMorgan bank executives said that one appeal of Frank was its promise of over four million customers, with detailed contact information, whom the bank could pitch. The bank could hook young adults with a checking account and potentially keep them and their business through decades of mortgages and retirement savings.

So Frank and JP Morgan were co-conspirators with a goal of raping the privacy of their customers, only Frank faked its customer base, hue?

You know, if we prosecuted everyone on both sides of the case who broke the law, the world would be a much better place.

I guess that it is just business as usual in the United States of Fraud.