Convicted fraudster Charlie Javice invoked her Holocaust-surviving grandmother in a letter pleading to a federal judge for mercy, insisting she accepts “full responsibility” for defrauding JPMorgan Chase out of $175 million and asking to avoid prison.
“I accept the jury’s verdict and take full responsibility for my actions. There are no excuses, only regret — I am truly sorry,” Javice, the founder of student aid startup Frank, wrote in a letter to Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Friday ahead of her sentencing.
Javice, 33, was convicted in March of securities fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy after a Manhattan jury found she fabricated customer data to convince JPMorgan that Frank had more than 4 million users.
In reality, the platform had fewer than 300,000.
Prosecutors said Javice and her growth officer, Olivier Amar, paid a data scientist to generate millions of fake student accounts to mislead the bank before its $175 million acquisition in 2021.
Javice now faces decades in prison but has pleaded for mercy, citing her youth at the time of the crimes and her family obligations.
“At 28, I was out of my depth and made poor choices that still haunt me,” she wrote.
She told the court she put her “life on hold” since her indictment, delaying her hopes of becoming a mother.
In her letter, she invoked her immigrant grandparents who “rebuilt their lives from nothing,” saying they instilled resilience and responsibility.
Her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, taught her that “education is the only thing you can take with you.”
She described volunteer work from starting a soup kitchen as a teenager, to apprenticeships for underserved youth in Israel, to supporting a clinic for children with special needs and, more recently, helping formerly incarcerated women find housing and jobs.
Javice wrote the case cost her her company, career, reputation and friendships. Most painfully, she said she lost time, including her hopes of motherhood.
“While I still hope motherhood is in the cards for me, at this point I realize it is not guaranteed,” Javice wrote.
“Adjusting to this reality as I approach the age of 34 has been crushingly sad not only to me but also to my aging parents.”
Javice wrote that her mother “is now approaching the age at which my grandmother and great-grandmother were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”
“The thought of not being there for my mom, or of not being able to give her grandchildren, is unbearable,” Javice wrote.
She wrote that Frank grew out of her own gratitude for financial aid and desire to give others a “fair shot” at higher education.
Her lawyers are asking for a no-prison sentence and no restitution to JPMorgan.
Sentencing is scheduled for later this month.
The Post has sought comment from JPMorgan.
