Frank’s founder, Charlie Javice, has made a personal plea for mercy ahead of her sentencing for defrauding JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million.
“I accept the jury’s verdict and take full responsibility for my actions,” she said in a three-page letter to the Manhattan judge who presided over her March trial, and who is due to sentence her on September 29.
“There are no excuses, only regret — I am truly sorry,” she wrote to US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein.
Javice’s letter touches on many of the same themes her lawyers raised earlier this week in a pre-sentencing package of arguments and support letters, some 300 pages in length.
Again, in Friday’s personal letter to Hellerstein, Javice mentioned her lifelong commitment to charitable works, her yearning to become a mother, and her Holocaust-surviving grandmother.
She also expressed her hope that a mistake made in her 20s would not ruin the rest of her life.
“These last five years have been defined by pain and loss — of my company, my career, my reputation, and many friendships,” she wrote.
“Most painfully, I have lost time. At 29, I put my life on hold, including my hopes of becoming a young mother. While I still hope motherhood is in the cards for me, at this point I realize it is not guaranteed,” she wrote.
“Adjusting to this reality as I approach the age of 34 has been crushingly sad not only to me but also to my aging parents. My mom is now approaching the age at which my grandmother and great-grandmother were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
“The thought of not being there for my mom, or of not being able to give her grandchildren, is unbearable,” she wrote.
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Javice was 29 years old in the summer of 2021 when JPMorgan acquired her website, which offered students financial advice and a simplified platform for filling out their FAFSAs, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Javice, now 33, faces a potential maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for using fake data to trick the largest US bank into splurging on the startup.
The jury found she used spreadsheets filled with bogus data to convince JPMorgan that she had contact info and financial data for over 4 million students, young people at the start of their banking journeys.
The bank had hoped to market financial services to these students, but quickly discovered it had overpaid: Javice’s website only had data for 300,000 students.
Jurors needed just eight hours of deliberation over two days to convict her and her second in command at Frank, Olivier Amar, of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and separate charges of bank, wire, and securities fraud.
“I do not ask for forgiveness or to erase the seriousness of the past,” Javice wrote in the letter made public Friday.
“I ask only for the chance to rebuild, to honor the support I’ve received, and to demonstrate through my actions that grace can be earned and hope — however fragile — is always worth embracing.”
She also told the judge that whatever her sentence may be, she will serve it “with dignity and grace.”
“I have learned from my mistakes and promise to do better and to be better,” the letter concludes.
