JPMorgan employees doubted stats before Frank acquisition

Internal messages released in a legal filing show that employees of college aid platform Frank expressed disbelief when founder Charlie Javice directed them to boost their customer count ahead of JPMorgan's acquisition of the startup for $175 million in 2021. JPMorgan alleges that Frank had fewer than 300,000 real customers when it was purchased, despite Javice instructing employees to change "public-facing numbers" to 4.25 million customers. Javice has been criminally charged by the Department of Justice and sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud related to the company sale, while JPMorgan has sued Javice for lying about her company's scale to close the deal.