Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Nasdaq’s CEO Adena Friedman is planning a historic acquisition, women are leaving India’s biggest tech firm amid a return to the office, and we explore the story behind a startup founder-turned-alleged fraudster. Have a great Wednesday!
– Frank story. In yesterday’s Broadsheet, we featured a new Fortune story about Charlie Javice, the founder of Frank, a financial aid startup now accused of defrauding JPMorgan to the tune of $175 million. In case you didn’t scroll through Luisa Beltran’s new feature on Javice (you should!), we thought we’d share a bit more today.
For those who need a refresher, Javice in 2017 founded Frank, a startup that intended to revamp the financial aid process for students. The company was acquired by JPMorgan for $175 million in 2021. But the bank sued Javice earlier this year, alleging she fabricated user numbers before the acquisition, claiming 4.25 million customers when the company only had about 300,000. Javice has denied the allegations and claimed it was the bank that made mistakes during the deal’s diligence. (Javice declined to talk to Luisa for her story.)
Through these legal battles, Javice has remained a bit of a mystery. So Luisa set out to answer a few questions: “How does a bright and ambitious and totally driven individual end up accused of fraud and hauled into jail for the night? How does someone who has strived their whole life to ‘make it’ end up in such legal peril?”
Charlie Javice, founder of Frank, center, arrives at federal court in New York on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images Luisa spoke to dozens of people who have known Javice to paint a complete portrait of an ambitious founder driven to succeed at all costs. Javice grew up in the suburbs of New York. Her father worked in alternative asset management. Classmates remember her as quiet and studious—a “normal” teen. She built her first startup in high school, a platform to help students launch microfinance clubs.
Then, she attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where she continued to focus on entrepreneurship. One classmate recalls that she seemed to aim to “get boxes checked” on her résumé and didn’t spend much time on learning for learning’s sake or on her personal life. She landed a spot as a finalist for a Thiel Fellowship, the $100,000 grant for entrepreneurs under 22, who generally drop out of college to participate.
After her 2013 graduation from Wharton, she pivoted to the business that became Frank.
The rest of Luisa’s story outlines the chain of events that led to a dramatic fall and a legal battle with one of the biggest banks in the U.S. I hope you’ll read it in full here.
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Kinsey Crowley. Subscribe here.
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- Crackdown. Leaders of the U.K. Parliament are hoping to reform the process for handling misconduct claims after being inundated with allegations of sexual abuse and harassment in recent years. Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt said, “Barely a week goes by without something happening that calls into question our adherence” to parliamentary rules. Bloomberg
- Big bet. Accenture, led by Julie Sweet, is the latest consulting firm to hop on the A.I. bandwagon. She announced that Accenture plans to invest $3 billion in A.I. in the next three years and double A.I.-focused staff to 80,000. New York Times
- Tragic story. Tori Bowie, an Olympic track star, died last month at age 32. Her autopsy now confirms that she died from complications from childbirth. She was found alone in a home, where she had been undergoing labor. NPR
- Historic acquisition. Nasdaq's CEO Adena Friedman is planning the biggest acquisition in the company's history; it will pay $10.5 billion in cash and stock for Adenza, a software company for banks and brokerages. The deal is part of Friedman's strategy to diversify the marketplace operator's revenue streams. Investors have reacted favorably to her approach since she took the job in 2017. Wall Street Journal
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Catherine LaCour has joined the board at Panorama Education. Vectra has appointed Myrna Soto to the board.
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- Hush hush. Corporations are talking less and less about ESG and DEI efforts in earnings calls. A look at 575 earnings calls from April 1 to June 5 showed a 31% decrease in mentions of related terms compared to the same period last year. It's the fifth drop in quarterly year-over-year comparisons after a surge following the death of George Floyd in 2020. Wall Street Journal
- Interference. Judge Aileen Cannon is presiding over former President Donald Trump's case involving allegedly mishandled confidential documents. A new, Trump-appointed judge, Cannon earlier tried to interfere with the Justice Department's documents probe. A panel of conservative appellate judges ultimately stepped in, ruling that Cannon had made several legal errors and did not have jurisdiction to intervene, but the episode has worried legal experts who are concerned about how Cannon will handle Trump's trial. Vox
- Drop off. When India's largest software firm Tata Consultancy Services required workers to come back to the office, men returned at higher rates than women. India has struggled to bring more women in the workforce, but the flexibility of working from home has helped. The country's workforce participation rate for women is 24% compared to 61% in China, which India recently surpassed to be the most populous country in the world. Bloomberg
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“I think gay people are very lucky, because we are not conventional, we are a group slightly apart. It gives us an edge. We’re good artists, we’re good musicians. And I like being gay. I wouldn’t want to be straight for anything.”
—British-Australian actor Miriam Margolyes
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