A Big Mistake: How Fake Numbers Fooled a Giant Bank

A former executive has been sentenced to over five years in prison for his role in a scheme that tricked JPMorgan Chase into buying a startup for a huge amount of money. Olivier Amar, who was the chief growth officer for the company Frank, was given 68 months behind bars. This comes after the founder of Frank, Charlie Javice, was sentenced to 85 months in prison earlier. The whole thing started when Frank, a company that aimed to make college financial aid easier, was up for sale. To make the company look more valuable, Javice and Amar created a fake list of customers. They used real names bought from data brokers to make it seem like Frank had millions of users, when in reality, it only had around 300, 000. Both were found guilty of several types of fraud, including bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to defraud. Prosecutors argued that Amar deserved at least six years in prison, while his lawyers claimed he didn't come up with the scheme and asked for no prison time. Amar, who is from Montreal, is likely to be deported after his sentence. Meanwhile, JPMorgan's CEO Jamie Dimon has called the purchase of Frank a “huge mistake. ” This case raises questions about due diligence in big business deals. How did a major bank like JPMorgan fall for such a scam? It's a reminder that even the biggest companies can be fooled by fake numbers and clever schemes.