Federal prosecutors want Charlie Javice to spend 12 years in prison, calling her fraud against JPMorgan Chase “audacious” and her eve-of-sentencing apology “hollow.”
In efforts to get the largest US bank to pay $175 million for Javice’s student financial aid startup, Frank, the founder “led an audacious and multifaceted criminal scheme built on sustained deceptive conduct,” prosecutors told her Manhattan judge in a letter made public late Monday.
The fallen fintech phenom was convicted of using fake spreadsheets to convince JPMorgan Chase that Frank had contact information and financial data for more than 4 million students.
In reality, it only had data for 300,000 students, thwarting JPMorgan’s plans to market checking accounts, credit cards, and other banking products to millions of young people at the start of their financial journeys.
“Only on the eve of her sentencing does Javice now claim that she accepts responsibility,” they wrote. “Her self-serving assertions ring hollow when measured against her conduct.
A jury found Javice guilty of the fraud scheme in March. US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein scheduled a sentencing hearing for September 29.
In a sentencing submission for Javice — which ran about 300 pages long — her lawyers argued that she should be given no prison time.
Her attorneys pointed to reams of letters written by friends, family, and acquaintances, which they said illustrated her true character. Javice strove to do good in the world, inspired by the experience of her Holocaust-surviving grandmother and years of volunteering for charities, they said.
They also discussed Javice’s struggles with fertility and, at the age of 34, her desire to start a family.
“There are no excuses, only regret — I am truly sorry,” Javice wrote in a letter included in the submission.
