JPMorgan’s acquisition of Frank founder Charlie Javice is causing legal troubles and cutting off her funding sources.
TWC – Charlie Javice, the founder of Frank, a financial aid site, who sold her company for $175 million, is now running out of money. Javice is fighting multiple lawsuits, one against JPMorgan Chase, the company that acquired Frank in 2021. Javice claims that JPMorgan Chase should pay her legal fees since she was terminated without cause.
Federal prosecutors, who accuse her of securities fraud, have blocked the money from the Frank sale, which made up the bulk of Javice’s wealth. Javice was meant to receive $28 million in cash from the sale, but federal prosecutors have frozen her access. She deposited $21.4 million into three accounts at JPMorgan, but JPMorgan retained $7.3 million in a third trust. After Javice was suspended from JPMorgan in September 2022, she moved most of her funds to Signature Bank. Then she pushed the rest to unnamed “major domestic institutions” in accounts that the US Attorney’s office later seized.
Javice was also arrested by federal prosecutors and released on a $2 million bond, guaranteed by two people and her Miami Beach condo, which she bought for $1.4 million in May 2021. Javice claims that JPMorgan Chase manufactured a “for-cause termination in bad faith,” If she is found guilty, she will pay the money back.
Javice’s legal fees are mounting, and she is incurring substantial expenses. Certain financial institutions have frozen Javice’s bank accounts, and she struggles to access her funds to pay legal fees. Federal prosecutors seized Javice’s assets in April and blocked her from accessing them. Javice faces several charges, including conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, and securities fraud. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison.