JPMorgan Refuses to Cover Legal Fees for Frank Founder
▼ Summary
– JPMorgan Chase has been billed $142 million in legal fees for defending Frank founder Charlie Javice and CMO Olivier Amar.
– The bank acquired Frank for $175 million in 2021, but Javice and Amar were later convicted of defrauding JPMorgan by inflating customer counts.
– JPMorgan is seeking to overturn a court order requiring it to pay the legal fees, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
– JPMorgan’s lawyer cited extreme billing abuses, including luxury hotel upgrades and 24 hours of work billed in a single day.
– Javice’s spokesperson claimed she followed JPMorgan policies and did not charge for any unapproved expenses.
JPMorgan Chase is currently contesting a judicial mandate to cover $142 million in legal fees for Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar, the founder and chief marketing officer of the financial aid platform Frank, which the bank purchased in 2021. Following their convictions for defrauding JPMorgan by exaggerating Frank’s user numbers, the institution now seeks to reverse the court’s reimbursement order, as detailed in recent reports.
The acquisition of Frank by JPMorgan took place in 2021 for a sum of $175 million. However, earlier this year, both Javice and Amar were found guilty of misleading the bank through fraudulent inflation of customer data. Javice received a seven-year prison sentence as a result of these actions.
According to Michael Pittinger, an attorney for JPMorgan, the legal expenses submitted on behalf of Javice included questionable items such as upgrades to luxury hotels, billing for a full 24 hours in one day, and charges for personal care products like cellulite butter. Pittinger remarked that he has never encountered a case displaying such severe billing abuses.
In response, a spokesperson for Javice stated that she strictly followed JPMorgan’s internal policies and was not involved in submitting or approving any improper expenses. The spokesperson emphasized that Javice purchased items such as ice cream in line with the bank’s code of conduct and never requested reimbursement for anything not explicitly allowed under company guidelines.
(Source: TechCrunch)
