The criminal trial against fintech startup founder Charlie Javice began on Friday, with lawyers laying out their opening arguments, Reuters reported. 

Lawyers reiterated their original claims and defenses from the lawsuit filed by JPMorgan Chase against Javice in December of 2022. The financial services giant alleges that Javice helped “fake millions of customers in order to induce the bank to buy her company,” student financial planning aid startup Frank, for $175 million. That charge was also the root of an SEC complaint, which charged that Javice “made numerous misrepresentations” about Frank’s purported millions of users to entice JPMorgan.

JPMorgan claims that it found out about the alleged fraud when more than 70% of marketing test emails to a list of Frank’s customers bounced back. 

Javice’s attorneys claim that JPMorgan did ample diligence and this suit is a result of buyer’s remorse due to a government change in the way financial aid forms are filled out; they say alleging fraud was a way to get out of the deal.

Javice, now 32 years old, could be sentenced to numerous years in prison if she’s convicted of deception and creating fake data.

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