JPMorgan Chase: Financial Aid Website, Frank, Had Fake Accounts
Frank, founded by Charlie Javice, was supposed to help millions of college students get financial assistance. The website was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2021.
(Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Colorado; Erie — JPMorgan Chase abruptly shut down its Frank website – for college financial aid – Thursday after realizing it had allegedly created roughly four million fake user accounts.
The financial institution discovered the truth about the site after sending marketing emails to 400,000 customers. According to a lawsuit filed last month in federal court, approximately 70% of the emails bounced. The bank purchased Frank in September 2021 in hopes that the new partner would help millions of students gain the financial aid they need, and deserve.
Frank, founded by Charlie Javice, is a financial aid platform that severely embellished statistics on their success and clientele scale when pitching to JPMorgan.
When the pair initially formed a deal, Javice was pushed to confirm her clientele base as a security net for JPMorgan. After saying she had more than five million customers, at the time, she had close to 300,000 real customers. According to a lawsuit, in order to get Chase to follow through with what they thought was a good deal, Javice took an alleged data science professor out of New York to help him create millions of fake customer emails.
According to Javice's lawyer, JPMorgan "manufactured" reasons to fire her late last year in order to avoid paying millions of dollars owed to her. Javice has filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan, claiming the bank owes her legal fees incurred during internal investigations.
In the wake of the disabled website, students have been directed, “To file your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), visit StudentAid.gov.”