Frank founder Charlie Javice sentenced for JPMorgan fraud | Hacker News Reader

Frank founder Charlie Javice sentenced for JPMorgan fraud

bbc.com

40 pointsEvgeniyZh37 comments

We need more criminal prosecutions for bad company owners and officers. This is a good start.

THere's plenty of prosecutions and convictions for bad company owners and officers when the crime is stealing from other rich people.

Forbes 30 under 30 never misses

Yes. Like an investment by SoftBank that's almost a kiss of death now. They even have a hall of shame.

If SoftBank invests in a 30 Under 30 founder, does it cancel each other out, or does it effectively speed-run the time between investment and jail time

I don't know about the speed-ups but it certainly sets them up for a Netflix/Hulu documentary.

Depends on the jurisdiction.

Most of successful founders are over 40. They should probably drop the paradigm entirely and start publishing a "40 over 40" list for up and coming founders.

They didn’t care about success. They cared about flash and notoriety.

Which notably aren’t very often correlated with long term success, but aren’t completely divorced from it either.

The thing to realize is that the news is about notable things, and things are notable when they’re not normal/standard/boring.

In your personal life, it’s often (actually) ideal to live a life that no newspaper reporter would give a second thought about writing up.

It’s odd, seems like most executives 40 and up seem to only care about flash and notoriety too…

The ones I’ve seen who actually get things done, weren’t particularly.

And if not actually getting things done, in my experience the shelf life is short.

But hey, lots of different ways to get money, and as long as you can avoid a fraud charge I guess?

For the record there are several regions, most with many many categories (some rather sad ones from the NA list: "venture capital", "social media", "retail and e-commerce", and "marketing and advertising"). There were 1230 total people on the global lists this year. Of course Forbes can't really defend itself because the notion of a "twelve hundred under 30" damages the pay-to-play golden goose. I would recommend poking around the list if you ever want a mood lightener. There are a truly comical number of people whose bio reads: "co-founder (CEO is over 30) of AI powered yadada which has raised $3M from investors". I think the median 30u30 business actually has considerably less revenue than a typical convenience store.

The criteria to be on the list is having a PR team to get you on the list.

The overlap between Under 30's with a PR team dedicated to getting them "on the list" and grifters, shysters and con artists is pretty big.

it has become a go to list of who to be scammers.

WTH good ranking for Forbes. How much % is fraud at Forbes?

JPMorgan was lured in by what appeared to be a database of 4 million users. In reality, that figure hovered around 300,000 users. Federal prosecutors had requested a 12-year prison sentence. Lawyers for Ms Javice, who had pleaded not guilty, had asked for just 18 months. US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein also ordered Ms Javice to forfeit more than $22m - and pay more than $287m to JPMorgan together with her co-defendant Olivier Amar, the start-up's chief growth and acquisition officer. Ms Javice, 33, made a name for herself in finance after founding Frank in 2017. The start-up was lauded for helping students navigate the college financial aid process, and Ms Javice was named on the Forbes '30 Under 30' list two years after starting the company.

What?

How much % of Forbes is fraud? Anyone keeps tracking?

I think all of them have been found guilty of something

The dot-com Era equivalent was getting a Fast Money cover shot.

The wall of shame says is 99.9% legit. I doubt that

The convicted founders were ordered to pay $280m to JPMorgan. Is this paying them back, and if so, is it not there the entire list of investors / angels / seed backers doing the payback?

$175M was the purchase price of the company.

The rest is almost certainly damages, fines and court fees.

And interest.

Since the article doesn't state it she got 85 months, a little over 7 years.

It does say that on the article but it's nice to have it here because that's what a lot of people are looking for.

News from late September.

Discussion then: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45424827

Deserved, still surprised they didn't vet the userbase before acquiring her company.

For years VC’s were (well, often still may be) ‘vibe investing’. No one wanted to look, because it was a competitive disadvantage to look (deal purchase wise). And usually it wasn’t that bad.

That’s what ‘infinite money’ eventually does in an economy.

FTFA:

> In a letter to Judge Hellerstein this month, Ms Javice said, "I accept the jury's verdict and take full responsibility for my actions."

> "There are no excuses, only regret," she added.

Wow. No PR whitewash. No weaselly apology wording. Just admitting she fucked up.

I don't think she's a good person, but that's at least a desirable attitude from someone who defrauded others.

And that's exactly why they threw the book at her. It's paradoxical, all judges say they want you to come clean and show remorse. But every case I've ever seen, they always go much harder on those that admit their wrongdoings. I'm not agreeing either way, it's just an observation.

The best legal strategy is to show no remorse and to never admit any guilt even if you have been convicted.

I always just assumed it was Game Theory Optimal to simply deny, deny, deny, before, during, and after any trial or legal action. Never admit to any wrongdoing. Always "vigorously defend" from and "strenuously object" to anything damning. You never see a company's counsel advising admitting to anything bad whatsoever.

Another interpretation is she regrets being caught and she took full responsibility of not doing a better job to covering things up.

lesson learned: if jp morgan fucks with your money, they get away with it. if you fuck with their money, you're done.

When will jp Morgan execs get sentenced for laundering Epstein's sex trafficking money?

And when will I get my flying car?

In 2017, the United States Department of Education accused Frank of potentially misleading customers. In 2018, Javice was sued by Adi Omesy, a co-founder of Frank, over wage theft in Israel. And much more.

How did the bank ignore all those red flags? and how do serial criminals and fraudulent 'founders' like her kept getting praise in the media and funding for their scams? Seems more like a flaw in the system that rewards sociopaths.

> Ms Javice was named on the Forbes '30 Under 30' list two years after starting the company.

Lmao another one. Wonder whether HN was dickriding them at the time like they do all their other fellow scammers.

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