In December 2022, JP Morgan Chase filed a lawsuit against Charlie Javice, the 30-year-old founder of fintech startup Frank, which the bank purchased for $175 million. The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, alleges that Javice and fellow Frank executive Olivier Amar conspired to create a detailed list of millions of fake customers in order to inflate the perceived value of the company.
According to the complaint, Javice approached JP Morgan in 2021 with a claim that Frank had 4.25 million users, when in reality it had just under 300,000. In an effort to prove his claim, Javice allegedly faked a list of customers, complete with false names, addresses, birth dates and other personal information. Javice and Amar reportedly paid an data science professor $18,000 to create the list.
However, the scam unraveled when JP Morgan attempted to send out an email campaign to the customers on the list. Of the 4.265 million addresses, 70% were undeliverable.
In addition to the lawsuit, Javice has launched her own legal claim in Delaware. She alleges that JP Morgan deliberately fabricated a termination for cause and is attempting to avoid paying her $28 million connected to the original acquisition.