Charlie Javice scammed JPMorgan out of $175M — now the bank must keep paying for her first-class tickets and gummy bears

Charlie Javice scammed JPMorgan out of $175M — now the bank must keep paying for her first-class tickets and gummy bears Dave Smith Fri, July 3, 2026 at 6:30 PM GMT+2 7 min read JPM Spencer Platt/Getty Images A Delaware judge ruled Thursday that JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) must keep paying the legal bills of Charlie Javice, the startup founder convicted of defrauding the bank into buying her fintech startup, Frank, for $175 million. Magistrate Christian Wright of the Delaware Court of Chancery found the bank had wrongly stopped paying (1), in violation of an earlier order. He ordered it to resume covering her defense costs, with interest.

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According to Business Insider (2), which first reported Thursday's ruling, Javice's lavish expenses have included $530 for gummy bears and a $581 dinner for two with a $161 seafood tower. Court filings reviewed by Fortune (3) in December found even more ridiculous items she was billing to JPMorgan, including a $347 "afternoon snack" of three charcuterie boards, roughly $3,000 in first-class flights between Boston and New York, and $13. 57 for one attorney's monthly Spotify charge.

The judge was unmoved by the theater. So was JPMorgan… but in the other direction. "We respectfully disagree with the Delaware decision about the bounds of reasonableness and are considering next steps," a JPMorgan spokesperson told Business Insider.

A spokesperson for Javice, on the other hand, said the ruling was "a reminder that public narratives don't override contractual obligations. " Why a convicted fraudster's bills land on the victim's desk To be clear: Javice was convicted of scamming JPMorgan, and now JPMorgan is now legally required to pay her lawyers. What's going on here is something in corporate law called "advancement.

" When JPMorgan bought Javice's startup, Frank, in 2021, the deal made her a corporate officer. The agreement carried the kind of indemnification and advancement clause that appears in a huge share of merger contracts. Delaware — where most big U.

S. companies incorporate — outlines the concept in Section 145 of its General Corporation Law (4). A company can pay an officer's legal expenses "in advance of the final disposition" of a case, so long as that person promises to repay the money if a court later finds they weren't entitled to it.

Story Continues The logic behind all of this is that companies want the right people to take executive jobs without worrying about a lawsuit that could possibly bankrupt them. But the protection is famously blunt. There's a good primer about advancement from the law firm Faegre Drinker (5), but basically, winning the fraud trial doesn't let JPMorgan off the hook.

"Section 145 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) allows corporations to protect present and former directors and officers from expenses incurred in connection with litigation arising from actions taken in service to the company or at the company's direction," Faegre Drinker writes. "Indemnification and advancement rights apply to threatened, pending, or completed lawsuits or proceedings, where, by virtue of an individual's role as a director or officer, the director or officer faces legal exposure or costs," it adds. That's why JPMorgan had been picking up the tab for Javice and co-defendant Olivier Amar since 2023, under an earlier court order.

Amar was Frank's chief growth officer, and he was sentenced to 68 months (6) for his role. In January, JPMorgan changed its tactics to argue that Javice's charges had become excessive, rather than try to argue whether it owed anything to her at all. The bank's lawyers told the court the roughly $115 million run up by Javice and Amar amounted to "clear abuse.

" As one attorney put it, per Bloomberg Law (7): "The case has red flags all over it and the fees are off the charts. " But the judge didn't buy it, instead ordering JPMorgan to cover the disputed tranche — a figure Bloomberg pegged at about $74 million (1) — after finding the bank hadn't met the high bar to prove the spending was abusive. JPMorgan can still try to claw the money back later, once appeals are all done and dusted, if a court decides Javice was never entitled to indemnification.

But for now, it's gotta pony up. Don't Miss: Paying too much for car insurance? 3 clever (and free) ways to slash your bill today A $175 million lie In case you're unfamiliar with the actual fraud case, according to the Justice Department (6), Javice originally sold JPMorgan on the idea that Frank — software meant to simplify the federal student-aid application — had 4.

25 million customers. The real figure was only about 300,000. When JPMorgan asked to verify the numbers, prosecutors said Javice and Amar had an engineer build a fake "synthetic" data set, then hired an outside data scientist to fabricate one that appeared to have more than 4.

25 million rows. After the deal closed, Javice and co. bought a list of 4.

5 million real students on the open market for $105,000 to paper over the gap. A jury convicted Javice and Amar of conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud, and securities fraud in March 2025. In September, U.

S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein sentenced Javice to 85 months in prison — just over seven years — plus a $22. 36 million forfeiture and $287.

5 million in restitution owed jointly with Amar. As you might imagine, the entire episode was a black eye for JPMorgan. CEO Jamie Dimon has called the acquisition a "huge mistake.

" The judge called Javice's crime "biblical," according to Fortune. (8) What gave the tussle between Javice and JPMorgan new life was the scale of her defense team's spending. Per Fortune, Javice's team eventually grew to 147 legal professionals across five firms.

Quinn Emanuel, the firm known for representing clients like Elon Musk, took in roughly $43 million (3). About $14 million went to Jose Baez, the lawyer who once defended Casey Anthony. To put the number in perspective, JPMorgan told the court Javice's bill ran more than double what Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes spent on her defense — about $30 million.

Javice remains free on $2 million bail while she appeals her conviction. She has repeatedly tried, and repeatedly failed (9), to shed the GPS ankle monitor she's worn since her conviction. This week a New York judge rejected her latest offer: doubling her bond to $4 million in exchange for removing the device.

The money, the judge ruled, "does not mitigate the risk of flight," given the years and hundreds of millions she still owes. You May Also Like Dave Ramsey warns this is the most common Social Security mistake — here's what it is and how to fix it ASAP Here's the average income of Americans by age in 2026. Are you keeping up or falling behind?

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Bloomberg ( 1 ); Business Insider ( 2 ), ( 9 ); Fortune ( 3 ), ( 8 ); Delaware Code ( 4 ); Faegre Drinker ( 5 ); U. S. Department of Justice ( 6 ); Bloomberg Law ( 7 ) This article originally appeared on Moneywise.

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