Exec charged over JPMorgan fraud case

investmentnews.com:

Olivier Amar, a former executive at the educational assistance startup Frank, has been indicted and charged with involvement in defrauding JPMorgan Chase. Court documents reveal that Amar, who served as the company’s chief growth officer, is facing federal counts of wire fraud, bank fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy. These charges have been added to the existing case against Frank’s founder, Charlie Javice.

Amar, aged 49, became the second employee of Frank to be charged in this case. On Thursday, he pleaded not guilty and was released on a $1 million bond. Javice, 31, was arrested earlier this year and faced the same charges of fraud. Like Amar, she pleaded not guilty and was also released on bond.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has included Amar as a defendant in its civil suit against Javice, which also alleges fraudulent activities.

Despite requests for comment, the attorneys representing Javice and Amar did not provide a response to NBC reporters.

According to the complaint filed by the SEC, Javice and Amar hired a data scientist to create a fictitious list of users, which was presented as evidence to JPMorgan to support Frank’s user data. The fabricated list indicated that the company had 4.25 million student customers, an exaggeration of over 10 times – in reality, it had fewer than 300,000 users.

Damningly, Javice sent a WhatsApp message to Amar in 2021, expressing her satisfaction with finding a skilled individual who could assist in this fraudulent scheme. Amar responded positively to the message.

The data scientist was paid $18,000 for his services, as revealed in the complaint.

The defendants also compiled a list of actual names that were used to falsely represent Frank customers. Amar organized