JPMorgan Chase says it’s been billed a total of $142 million in legal fees for the defense of Charlie Javice and Olivier Amar, respectively the founder and chief marketing officer at financial aid startup Frank.
JPMorgan acquired Frank for $175 million in 2021, but earlier thai year, Javice and Amar were found guilty earlier of defrauding the bank by inflating Frank’s customer count, with Javice sentenced to seven years in prison. JPMorgan is now seeking to overturn a judge’s order requiring the bank to pay the pair’s legal fees, as reported in The Wall Street Journal.
Michael Pittinger, a lawyer representing JPMorgan, said that Javice’s legal team billed for expenses including luxury hotel upgrades, 24 hours of work in a single day, and cellulite butter (a moisturizer).
“There’s never been a case, to my knowledge, with such extreme abuses,” Pittinger said.
A spokesman for Javice told the WSJ that she abided by JPMorgan policies and “didn’t charge or see any expenses.”
“As an employee, she did purchase ice cream and other items in accordance with JPMorgan’s code of conduct, and she never sought reimbursement for anything that wasn’t expressly permitted under the guidelines she was given,” Javice’s spokesman said.