Charlie Javice arrives for her sentencing at court on September 29, 2025 in New York City. Javice was convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million through her college financial-aid platform, Frank. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Charlie Javice, the 33-year-old founder of the startup student financial aid company Frank, has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.
She’s the latest young tech executive who vaulted to fame and faced a collapsing company amid fraud allegations.
Here’s what the court says happened:
Who is Charlie Javice?
Big picture view:
Charlie Javice was in her mid-20s when she founded Frank, a company that promised to revolutionize the way college students apply for financial aid.
The young tech executive appeared regularly on cable news programs to boost Frank’s profile, once appearing on Forbes’ "30 Under 30" list.
She’s a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, and currently lives in Florida.
Frank student financial aid company
Dig deeper:
Javice founded Frank to launch software that promised to simplify the arduous process of filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, a complex government form used by students to apply for aid for college or graduate school.
The company said its offering, akin to online tax preparation software, could help students maximize financial aid while making the application process less painful, in exchange for a few hundred dollars in fees.
JPMorgan Chase
The backstory:
JPMorgan bought the startup in 2021 for $175 million, thinking Frank had over 4 million customers when it had fewer than 300,000.
What they're saying:
Prosecutors said she duped the banking giant and engaged in fraudulent activity to acquire the sale.
A prosecutor, Micah Fergenson, said JPMorgan "didn’t get a functioning business" in exchange for its investment. "They acquired a crime scene."
Before sentencing, the judge criticized the bank, saying "they have a lot to blame themselves" after failing to do adequate due diligence. He quickly added, though, that he was "punishing (Javice’s) conduct and not JPMorgan’s stupidity."
The other side:
Javice’s lawyers said the bank rushed its negotiations because it feared another bank would acquire Frank first, and argued that JPMorgan then went after Javice because it had buyer’s remorse.
They also asked the judge to have leniency in its sentencing because the negotiations that led to Frank's sale pitted "a 28-year-old versus 300 investment bankers from the largest bank in the world."
Bottom line:
Javice was convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud and wire fraud charges earlier this year, and learned her sentence of at least seven years in prison this week.
Elizabeth Holmes Theranos case
Meanwhile:
Javice’s case has been compared to another tech startup sale that ended with prison time – Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos.
Holmes was convicted of making false claims about what her blood-testing startup could achieve. She claimed her startup had developed a revolutionary medical device that could detect a multitude of diseases and conditions from a few drops of blood. But the technology never worked, and the claims were false.
She began serving her 11-year sentence in May 2023 at a federal prison in Texas.
RELATED: Elizabeth Holmes: Theranos founder calls prison 'hell and torture'
Another case:
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced last year to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud on hundreds of thousands of customers that unraveled with the collapse of FTX.
The Source: Information in this article was taken from Charlie Javice’s sentencing hearing on Sept. 29, 2025, as reported by The Associated Press. Background information was also taken from The Associated Press and previous FOX Television Station reportings. This story was reported from Detroit.