A Florida girl deployed a “brazen fraud” to promote her pupil assist startup to JPMorgan Chase for $175 million after dramatically exaggerating its buyer base, a prosecutor advised jurors Wednesday in a felony trial’s closing argument.
Assistant US Lawyer Nicholas Chiuchiolo urged a Manhattan federal court docket jury to convict Charlie Javice and one other former high government at her firm, which operated beneath the identify Frank, of conspiracy and fraud expenses.
Protection lawyer Jose Baez urged an acquittal of his 32-year-old shopper, calling the proof “incredibly flawed.” He urged the jury to “look at evidence, lack of evidence and the conflict of the evidence” to exonerate Javice.
As he spoke, Javice smiled at instances and turned her chair to face the jury.
Prosecutors stated the Miami Seaside, Fla., resident who appeared on the Forbes 2019 “30 Under 30” record would have earned $45 million from the fraud.
The protection presentation got here after Chiuchiolo cited emails, textual content messages and cellphone calls to persuade jurors that Javice repeatedly lied to JPMorgan in the summertime of 2021 to safe a buyout that might earn her thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
The corporate Javice based as soon as appeared like a pioneer amongst companies that cater to college-age college students, who banks encourage to open checking or bank card accounts within the hopes they’ll change into lifelong clients.
Frank, established in 2017 as TAPD Inc., was created to simplify filling out the Free Software for Federal Scholar Support, a federal authorities kind utilized by college students to use for monetary assist for faculty or graduate faculty.
Chiuchiolo stated Javice, who was arrested in April 2023 and is free on bail, sought to promote the corporate in 2021, when it had about 400,000 clients, claiming it had over 4.25 million shoppers.
When JPMorgan Chase sought to confirm the shopper record, Javice first approached her firm’s head of engineering, asking if he may produce “synthetic data” to point out the corporate had over 4 million clients, the prosecutor stated.
However the worker refused, saying he “would not do anything illegal,” Chiuchiolo stated.
“They’re going to call him a liar,” he predicted of the protection’s characterization of his testimony. “Because if you believe him, the defendants are guilty.”
Javice ultimately employed an out of doors information scientist for $105,000 to create an artificial information set displaying over 4.2 million college students, prosecutors stated.
Javice didn’t testify throughout the five-week trial. The jury was anticipated to start deliberations on Thursday.
