Charlie Javice, who graduated from the Wharton School in 2013, is reportedly seeking a pardon from the White House after being convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Javice was sentenced to 85 months in federal prison in September for overstating the value of her financial aid startup, which JPMorgan purchased for $175 million. During the trial and after her guilty verdict, Javice contended that she was unfairly prosecuted.
According to The Wall Street Journal, people familiar with the matter said Javice and those in her circle are working to build favor with people close to 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump. His administration is considering plans to grant 250 pardons in honor of the nation’s semiquincentennial.
A request for comment was left with the White House and Department of Justice.
Javice founded Frank — a for-profit financial aid assistance program — in 2016 to help students navigate the federal financial aid application program and negotiate with colleges to improve financial aid offers. She sold the company to JPMorgan in 2021 under the pretense that the buyers would have access to a user base of over four million individuals.
In December 2022, the bank sued Javice, alleging that she had misrepresented the startup’s number of customers and created fake accounts to secure the acquisition. According to the lawsuit, Frank had fewer than 300,000 real users.
Her trial spanned five weeks in February and March 2025, during which 12 jurors found her guilty of all federal charges — including conspiracy, bank fraud, securities fraud, and wire fraud.
Prior to Javice’s sentencing, 1984 Wharton graduate and former Wharton Board of Advisors Chair Marc Rowan sent a letter urging Senior United States District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein to “impose a lenient sentence.”
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Rowan — who served as Frank’s lead investor — wrote the letter as an opportunity to “offer a more complete picture of who Charlie is as a person.”
“I am deeply sorry, and I am asking with all my heart for forgiveness,” Javice told Hellerstein during the trial, according to Bloomberg. “If it were within my power, I would never make the same mistake.”
In 2023, Javice countersued JPMorgan for $27.9 million, alleging that the suit was intended to cover up the bank’s misconduct of planning to monetize information of students who submitted the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which goes against federal regulations. At the time, Javice claimed that four million users did use Frank to read articles about financial aid, and did not dispute the statement that under half a million used the platform to complete financial aid forms.
Javice continues to face a civil case from the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as a legal battle with JPMorgan over $74 million in legal bills.
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Staff reporter Luke Petersen covers national politics and can be reached at petersen@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow him on X @LukePetersen06.
