JPMorgan Chase & Co shut down its Frank website on Thursday, a college financial planning tool it purchased in 2021, after suing the startup’s founder and another employee for generating nearly 4 million bogus customer accounts.
In order to strengthen its ties with students, the largest bank in the United States spent $175 million for Frank. According to the bank, creator Charlie Javice and Chief Growth Officer Olivier Amar led it to believe that over 4.25 million students had established accounts on Frank.
However, when JPMorgan sent marketing test emails to a list of Frank’s clients provided by the company, just 28% of them were delivered, according to the bank.
JPMorgan stated that similar initiatives typically had a delivery rate of 99%.
“(JPMorgan) spent $175 million for what it thought was a business deeply involved with the college-aged market sector with 4.265 million consumers; instead, it obtained a business with less than 300,000 customers,” the bank claimed in a complaint filed last month.
However, JPMorgan said that when it sent marketing test emails to a list of Frank’s clients provided by the company, just 28% of them were delivered.
JPMorgan claims that previous initiatives have a 99% delivery rate.
“(JPMorgan) spent $175 million for what it thought was a business deeply involved with the college-aged market sector with 4.265 million consumers; instead, it obtained a business with less than 300,000 customers,” the bank claimed in a complaint filed last month.
Frank’s website was no longer accessible as of Thursday.
“Ms. Javice was not and continues to be, a whistleblower. Any disagreement would be settled through the legal system “A JPMorgan spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.