- A jury has been selected for the trial of Charlie Javice in Manhattan.
- Prosecutors say Javice defrauded JPMorgan Chase.
- Jurors were asked if they knew Jamie Dimon or ran start-up businesses.
A jury was selected and opening statements began Thursday in the trial of Frank founder Charlie Javice.
Prosecutors say Javice and her former colleague Olivier Amar defrauded JPMorgan Chase by lying about the success of Frank, a startup she launched to help students apply for college financial aid.
Jury selection in lower Manhattan’s federal court spanned Wednesday and most of Thursday. Before being selected, jurors were questioned at hushed sidebars about their personal lives, including whether they had ever worked in finance, been a victim of fraud, or had close personal or business relationships with people like Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase.
Some prospective jurors were excused after sharing that they worked for JPMorgan or other banks. Another was excused after saying she enjoyed watching shows about scams and thinking about the psychology that motivates fraudsters.
“This is not an easy procedure. It was difficult. It took longer than I expected,” federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said after the 12 jurors and 4 alternates had been selected on Thursday.
The jury and its alternates include people who told the judge they work in sales management and IT, as well as some who work for the city of New York. Others work in healthcare or have no job.
Throughout the voir dire process, Javice — dressed in a blouse and pencil skirt — smiled in the direction of jurors and took frequent notes. She appeared personable and chatted with the attorneys on each side of her, playing with her hair while talking.
Opening arguments began after lunch.
JPMorgan Chase acquired Frank in 2021 for $175 million, keeping Javice and Amar on as the first and second in command and giving them lucrative compensation packages.
Despite the former executives’ claims that Frank had more than 4 million users, the federal government said Javice was “falsely and dramatically inflating the number of customers of her company” to lure JPMorgan Chase into the acquisition.
“They had nothing close to that,” US Attorney Rushmi Bhaskaran said on Thursday. “Through these lies, the defendants became multimillionaires.”
The duo “made up fake data” to bolster their user base and then tried to cover it up, Bhaskaran said.
Attorneys for the defendants, who were charged separately, painted a different picture.
Jose Baez, one of Javice’s attorneys, said JPMorgan didn’t do enough due diligence before purchasing Frank, calling it a “business deal that went wrong.”
He called Javice an “incredible young woman” who, at age 28, was savvy enough to secure a one-on-one meeting with Dimon, JPMorgan’s CEO.
Baez added that the acquisition was more about acquiring Javice herself than Frank’s supposed 4 million users.
“They saw something in Charlie, a young, female CEO breaking the glass ceiling,” Baez said. “That’s what JPMorgan negotiated for, and that’s what they got.”
Meanwhile, Amar’s attorney, Jonathan Cogan, referred to his client as an “innocent man” who was dragged into his boss’s problems after the prosecution “lumped them together.”
Amar, who was stoic through much of the proceedings, nodded subtly while Cogan reminded the jury that he is innocent until proven guilty.
“Sometimes, our government gets it wrong,” Cogan said. “Sometimes, prosecutors can be overzealous. Sometimes, innocent people get swept up.”
A spokesperson for JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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