(March 20): Apollo Global Management co-founder Marc Rowan will be called to testify for the defence in Charlie Javice’s trial on charges that she defrauded JPMorgan Chase & Co in the bank’s US$175 million (RM775.75 million) acquisition of her student-finance startup, Frank.

The billionaire, a Frank investor and board member, will be the first defence witness and is expected to take the stand on Thursday, lawyers said in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors claim Javice falsely told JPMorgan her site had more than 4.2 million users when it had actually had fewer than 300,000.

Javice’s lawyers haven’t previewed Rowan’s testimony. But his membership on Frank’s board, along with that of venture capitalist Michael Eisenberg, was cited by the defence at the beginning of trial as showing the company was a legitimate and credible business.

“They saw a young female CEO who was breaking the glass ceiling, and breaking it big time,” defence lawyer Jose Baez said of Rowan and Eisenberg in his Feb 20 opening statement. Rowan led a US$10 million funding round for Frank in December 2017 and participated in another US$5 million round in 2020. JPMorgan acquired the company in September 2021.

Like Javice, Rowan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he earned both a bachelor’s degree and an MBA. He was reported to have been on President Donald Trump’s short list for Treasury Secretary.

Rowan was spotted entering the courthouse on Wednesday, apparently waiting to be called as a witness. His lawyer, Mary Mulligan, declined to comment on her client’s impending testimony.

The prosecution was expected to rest its case on Wednesday after spending the last four weeks trying to prove fraud and conspiracy charges against Javice and her co-defendant, former Frank executive Olivier Amar. 

Javice and Amar have both pleaded not guilty. Defence lawyers have argued the two had no intent to defraud the banks and say that JPMorgan didn’t care about Frank’s user numbers when it bought the company. Amar’s team has also sought to distance him from his former boss by showing that he wasn’t involved in key meetings and communications.

The case is US v Javice, 23-cr-00251, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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