Disgraced Frank founder Charlie Javice was photographed in Miami Beach on Sunday in her first known public appearance since her indictment for allegedly duping JPMorgan Chase into buying her startup for $175 million.
In photos exclusively obtained by The Post, Javice, the 31-year-old founder of the now-shuttered college financial aid firm, and an unidentified male companion were spotted shopping in a local Target and going for an incognito stroll in Miami Beach, where she resides.
The pair were dressed casually and appeared to be keeping a low profile while running errands in the sunny locale. Javice returned to Miami after her arrest at Newark Airport in New Jersey on April 3.
Javice appeared the following day in Manhattan federal court, where prosecutors unveiled charges against her, including conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud, and securities fraud. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 or 30 years in federal prison.
She was later released on a whopping $2 million bond and required to surrender both of her passports to authorities. The bond is guaranteed by two people, as well as equity in her Miami home, Bloomberg reported.
Javice is also limited to traveling between New York City and South Florida, must observe a curfew and is barred from contacting potential witnesses, as well as employees at JPMorgan Chase and Frank.
The arrest marked the culmination of a shocking downfall for Javice, a dual US and French citizen who was honored on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list for rising stars in the financial world in 2019.
Last week, a spokesperson told The Post that Javice “denies the allegations.”
The feds allege that Javice used fake customer data to lure JPMorgan into acquiring Frank under false pretenses.
Prosecutors say that Javice repeatedly claimed Frank had 4.25 million users while in sale talks with JPMorgan Chase and another unnamed bank. However, Frank allegedly had data for less than 300,000 users, according to court papers.
When JPMorgan officials sought proof of Frank’s user metrics, Javice purportedly paid an “outside data scientist” $18,000 to create a fake list of clients. The feds assert that the data helped push the bank into closing the deal.
Court papers said JPMorgan realized the scam after it attempted to conduct an marketing campaign using the customer list – only for its emails to bounce bank.
“As alleged, Javice engaged in a brazen scheme to defraud JPMC in the course of a $175 million acquisition deal,” US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. “She lied directly to JPMC and fabricated data to support those lies — all in order to make over $45 million from the sale of her company.”
Javice received a $21 million payout for selling for an equity stake in Frank to JPMorgan and a $20 million retention bonus, according to the feds.
The entrepreneur faces separate charges from the SEC, as well as a lawsuit from JPMorgan Chase. Javice has countersued the bank.
Javice founded Frank in 2017. The firm was billed as a service that would help college students and their families to navigate an often-complicated financial aid application process.
JPMorgan closed down Frank in January. The bank’s CEO Jamie Dimon has described JPMorgan’s acquisition of Frank as a “huge mistake.”
In the days after Javice’s arrest, Forbes faced online mockery from users who pointed out that the Frank founder had joined the likes of Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried among those to be honored by the publication, only to later face criminal charges.
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