Lawyers for Charlie Javice say she can’t possibly wear an ankle bracelet between now and her July 26 sentencing for defrauding JPMorgan — because it would get in the way of her job as a pilates instructor.
Moments after a Manhattan federal jury’s guilty-on-all-counts verdict on Friday, government prosecutors asked the judge to order that the newly convicted fintech fraudster be ordered to submit to electronic monitoring over the next four months.
Javice, 32, of Miami, and her co-defendant Olivier Amar, 50, are both flight risks after being convicted of four counts each of conspiracy and fraud, argued Assistant US Attorney Georgia V. Kostopoulos.
The jury found that the pair conspired in 2021 to trick the country’s largest bank out of $175 million, the sale price for her financial aid startup, Frank.
Amar is a French citizen, and Javice holds dual French-US citizenship, the prosecutor argued. France, she noted, does not have an extradition agreement with the US.
“We would just ask that the same electronic monitoring be set as they were subjected to on their arrest,” she told US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who had just wrapped up the six-month trial and dismissed the five-woman, seven-man jury.
Javice’s attorney quickly objected — because pilates.
“We believe this is unnecessary,” said defense lawyer Ron Sullivan, explaining that since losing her Frank financial aid website and getting fired by JPMorgan three years ago, Javice now makes her living as a pilates instructor.
“She cannot do it with the ankle bracelet on,” Sullivan told the judge. And she teaches “almost every day,” he said.
Hellerstein appeared incredulous.
“So the problem is that she cannot wear an ankle bracelet because she teaches pilates?” he asked. “The hindrance is teaching pilates?”
“My understanding is that it’s more than a hindrance — it renders it impossible,” her lawyer said.
Javice had been ordered to wear an ankle monitor in April 2023. Hellerstein allowed her to remain out of jail ahead of the trial so long as she wore the bracelet and gave up her passports, among other conditions.
Then, in November, Javice’s attorney Samuel Nitze asked Hellerstein to modify the conditions of her release and remove the “heavy, cumbersome GPS unit affixed to her ankle.” The device, Nitze wrote, “impeded her work as a fitness instructor.”
“The GPS unit causes Ms. Javice physical pain, has impeded her work as a fitness instructor, and has resulted in delays and complications at TSA screening when she travels and as she enters the courthouse to attend hearings,” he wrote.
At the time, prosecutors didn’t object, and Hellerstein approved the change a few days later.
But on Friday — as Javice remained free on a $2 million bond secured by her Miami house and co-signed by her parents — prosecutors toughened their stance.
“I’ve never heard of a situation where an exercise class is an obstacle to wearing a monitor,” Kostopoulos told the judge.
When Hellerstein suggested that maybe the ankle bracelet could be removed during the four or five hours of teaching, and then put back on, the prosecutor said that would not be an option.
“My understanding is that’s not something probation can do,” she told the judge.
Hellerstein said he will rule on the ankle bracelet matter for both defendants on Tuesday, their next court date.
Convicted scammers don’t always have a problem with ankle monitors. Anna Sorokin — AKA Anna Delvey — bedazzled hers with rhinestones during her brief time as a contestant on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars,” and flaunted it while strutting across runways for New York Fashion Week.
Sorokin was convicted by a New York state jury in a scam where she bilked banks by pretending to be a wealthy European heiress.
She now wears an ankle monitor while on release from ICE detention while she fights attempts to deport her to Germany.
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