By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, March 24 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Charlie Javice’s bid to throw out her conviction for defrauding JPMorgan Chase into buying her education startup Frank for $175 million, after she said two law clerks had conflicts of interest by accepting jobs at the bank’s outside law firm.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan said his clerks’ past and future employment at Davis Polk & Wardwell, including as summer associates prior to their clerkships, “did not create an appearance of partiality” requiring a new trial for Javice and co-defendant Olivier Amar, Frank’s former chief growth officer.
Hellerstein, 92, also said there was no proof he relied too heavily on his clerks, including when the defendants accused a clerk of “participating in real time” in decisions about important testimony, and no reasonable person who watched the entire case would question his impartiality.
“The evidence in this case was strong, and there is no concern here that an innocent person may have been convicted,” he added.
Lawyers for Javice and Amar did not immediately respond to requests for comment after business hours.
Davis Polk has more than 1,000 lawyers according to its website, and neither the law firm nor JPMorgan was a defendant in the criminal case.
Javice, 34, founded Frank in 2017 and won praise for simplifying college financial aid for students and parents.
Prosecutors said she deceived JPMorgan by claiming Frank had far more customers than it actually had. JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has called the 2021 purchase a “huge mistake.”
Hellerstein sentenced Javice to 85 months in prison and Amar to 68 months in prison.
Both were convicted last March of bank fraud, securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud. Javice has appealed her conviction. Amar is scheduled to surrender on May 5, Hellerstein said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chris Reese)
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