Executive who worked with Charlie Javice at Frank sentenced to 68 months in prison for fraud

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NEW YORK (Reuters) -A former finance executive convicted of helping Charlie Javice defraud JPMorgan Chase into buying the college financial aid startup Frank for $175 million was sentenced on Wednesday to 68 months in prison.

Olivier Amar, who was Frank’s chief growth officer, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan.

Hellerstein also sentenced Javice to 85 months in prison on September 29. She is expected to appeal her conviction.

Lawyers for Amar did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Javice founded Frank in 2017 and won praise for simplifying college financial aid for students and parents.

But prosecutors said that when it came time to sell the business, the defendants created a fake customer list, containing real names they bought from data brokers.

Prosecutors said the defendants did this to convince JPMorgan that Frank had about 4.25 million customers, not the approximately 300,000 it actually had.

Both defendants were convicted of bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud.

Prosecutors said Amar deserved at least six years in prison. Lawyers for Amar sought no prison time, saying he did not engineer the fraud, and lost his livelihood and reputation.

The Montreal native expects to be deported following his sentence, court papers show.

JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon called buying Frank a “huge mistake.”

The largest U.S. bank on Monday asked a Delaware judge to end its court-ordered obligation to continue paying Javice’s and Amar’s legal bills, which it said have totaled a “breathtaking” $115 million.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)