A judge has ordered JPMorgan Chase to pay Charlie Javice’s legal fees — even as the mega-bank sues the embattled Frank founder for fraud in its $175 million acquisition of her company.
Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen McCormick ruled on Monday that JPMorgan was legally obligated to pay 31-year-old Javice’s defense costs. It’s also likely the ruling includes Javice’s defense in criminal fraud charges brought by federal prosecutors.
To avoid paying Javice’s legal fees, JPMorgan had previously argued that the payments fell outside its September 2021 acquisition agreement with Javice, where the bank had agreed to purchase Javice’s college financial-planning site, Frank, for $175 million.
As a result of the acquisition, however, Javice was hired by by JPMorgan as a managing director of Frank. Accordingly, Javice had argued she was entitled to payment of her legal fees as a JPMorgan employee.
Judge McCormick on Monday sided with Javice, ruling that the contract lacked a “carve out” to free JPMorgan from its obligations.
Javice — along with with Frank’s chief growth and acquisition officer, Olivier Amar — reportedly received $26 million from the deal.
Javice — who was named on Forbes’s 2019 “30 under 30” list in finance — was fired from her role at JPMorgan last November when it was revealed that she allegedly used fake customer data to get the bank to buy her company.
According to a lawsuit filed by JPMorgan in December, the acquisition was completed under the guise that Frank “was a business deeply engaged with the college-aged market segment with 4.265 million customers.”
JPMorgan instead “received a business with fewer than 300,000 customers,” as stated in the explosive suit.
As a result, the Frank founder is facing criminal charges for conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and securities fraud. She faces more than 100 years in jail if convicted.
She has not entered a plea in the case after being charged in federal court in Manhattan last month. However, she has had “discussions regarding a possible disposition of this case,” Assistant US Attorney Dina McLeod said in a filing disclosed publicly on Thursday.
Since being fired, Javice countersued the bank with claims that she was owed millions in legal expenses as a result of an internal investigation from last spring.
She also claimed that she was owed $20 million more in a bonus payment, and alleged that she was fired so JPMorgan could skirt it.
Alex Spiro, Javice’s attorney, called JPMorgan’s lawsuit “nothing but a cover.”
Spiro didn’t immediately respond to noti.group’s request for comment following the latest advancements in Javice’s suit against the bank.
JPMorgan has also sued Amar for his participation in the alleged fraud.
According to the Department of Justice criminal complaint, Javice and Amar allegedly hired a data scientist for $18,000 to fabricate a list of fake names and addresses that were passed off as customers.
That data scientist then used computer-generated data to create a fake user base that included information such as customers’ names, birthdates, and colleges they attended, the lawsuit claimed.
Amar has not been charged in the criminal case, but he has countersued JPMorgan demanding the bank cover his legal fees. In their suits, both Amar and Javice claimed they deserved coverage under JPMorgan’s policies since they were employees as a result of the bank’s merger with Frank.
A decision has yet to be made if JPMorgan will also be paying Amar’s defense costs.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
