U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Litigation Release No. 25776 / July 12, 2023
Securities and Exchange Commission v. Javice et al., Civil Action No. 1:23-cv-02795 (S.D.N.Y. filed April 4, 2023)
SEC Charges Additional Frank Executive with Fraud in Connection with $175 Million Sale of Student Loan Assistance Company
On July 12, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Olivier Amar, the former Chief Growth Officer of Frank, with fraud in connection with the $175 million sale of the company to JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., (JPMC) in 2021. The SEC previously charged Charlie Javice, the founder and former CEO of Frank, in connection with the same scheme, in which she and Amar allegedly deceived JPMC into believing that Frank had access to valuable data on 4.25 million students who used Frank’s service, when in reality the number was less than 300 thousand.
According to the SEC’s amended complaint, Amar directed a Frank engineering employee to generate an artificial, “synthetic” set of data to supplement actual data that Frank had acquired from website visitors. The purpose of this request was to fulfill a due diligence request from JPMC to assess Frank’s own user data before the acquisition. After the engineering employee declined to generate fictitious data, Javice and Amar allegedly coordinated an effort to obtain data from outside sources. Specifically, Javice allegedly paid a data science professor to manufacture the data required to close the deal with JPMC, while Amar negotiated with an external data compiler and ultimately procured data on 4.5 million students at a cost of $105,000 that Frank allegedly falsely passed off as being real customers in response to inquiries from JPMC following the close of the acquisition.
In addition to the previously announced charges against Javice, the amended complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, charges Amar with violations of Section 17(a)(1) and (3) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rules 10b-5(a) and (c) thereunder, and Amar with aiding and abetting Javice’s violations of those provisions.
The SEC’s investigation was conducted by Wesley Wintermyer and Lindsay Moilanen of the New York Regional Office. The litigation is being handled by Mr. Wintermyer and Daniel Loss. The matter is being supervised by Tejal Shah. The SEC appreciates the assistance of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which announced parallel, criminal charges today.