What would you do if the federal government wanted you in jail and Jamie Dimon was paying your legal bills?
Here’s what Charlie Javice did: She spent money on luxury hotel upgrades, extravagant meals and cellulite butter, a personal care product that some people use to treat their skin, as a lawyer for the bank said in a hearing Friday.
Charlie Javice has spent more than $US60 million ($92 million) — and counting — on her defence, according to recent legal filings.Credit: Bloomberg
Then, she sent the receipts to the bank.
All told, Javice has spent more than $US60 million ($92 million) — and counting — on her defence, according to recent legal filings. The bank has called the sum an “unprecedented and shocking amount that has exceeded any semblance of reasonableness.” It appears to be tens of millions of dollars more than Elizabeth Holmes’ legal fees, for instance.
In September, Javice, 32, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for fraud. In 2021, JPMorgan Chase acquired her startup, Frank, for $US175 million ($268 million). Javice had claimed her company helped millions of people fill out their federal financial aid forms.
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After the acquisition, however, the bank discovered that she had lied about most of Frank’s customers. JPMorgan sued, and then prosecutors put Javice on trial. A jury convicted her this year.
Along the way, Javice won a ruling that required the bank to pay her legal fees. JPMorgan has objected to the size of the fees in the past, and after her sentencing it decided to try to cut her off. The bank is trying the same manoeuvre with her former chief growth and acquisition officer, Olivier Amar, who was also convicted of fraud.
JPMorgan said in a filing last month that Javice engaged five separate law firms, and that she and her lawyers have treated the original ruling forcing the bank to pay for her defence as a “blank check to bill and expense whatever they please.” The stable of lawyers that she has used have also represented Elon Musk, Harvey Weinstein and Sam Bankman-Fried.
