JPMorgan court filings reveal startup staff’s skepticism ahead of Frank acquisition

Employees of a startup purchased by JPMorgan Chase expressed disbelief erstwhile the company's laminitis directed them to boost their lawsuit number up of the acquisition, according to interior messages released Thursday successful a ineligible filing.

The founder, Charlie Javice, instructed employees to alteration "public-facing numbers" of assemblage assistance level Frank to 4.25 cardinal customers successful January 2021, JPMorgan alleged successful the filing. Frank had less than 300,000 existent customers erstwhile JPMorgan bought it successful September 2021, the slope has alleged.

"Do we truly person 4.25M students?" 1 Frank worker asked successful a January 2021 Slack thread.

"Is this real?" different asked.

"Charlie is king of uncovering magic numbers," wrote different employee, whose names were redacted successful the filing.

The merchandise of backstage unit messages is portion of the latest salvo successful the ineligible quality betwixt Javice and JPMorgan, which paid $175 cardinal for the startup. JPMorgan, the biggest U.S. slope by assets and a dependable acquirer of fintech startups, sued Javice successful December 2022, alleging that the laminitis had lied astir her company's standard to adjacent the deal.

According to Thursday's filing, Javice justified the alteration successful idiosyncratic stats by telling employees that website visitors counted arsenic customers, the slope alleged.

In its archetypal suit, JPMorgan alleged that Javice hired a information subject prof to concoct fake accounts aft an worker refused to bash so.

Javice's problems person intensified successful caller weeks. In April, the startup laminitis was criminally charged by the Department of Justice and sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission, some which accused her of fraud related to the institution sale.

Javice has said successful tribunal filings that JPMorgan knew however galore users Frank had and that the slope sought to blasted her for its mistakes.

A lawyer for Javice didn't instantly respond to messages near precocious Thursday.