(Bloomberg) — Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Officer Marc Rowan urged a judge to be lenient when he sentences Charlie Javice later this month for defrauding JPMorgan Chase & Co. in its $175 million acquisition of her student finance startup.

In a letter filed Friday in Manhattan federal court, the billionaire, who was an investor in and board member at Javice’s company, Frank, asked US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to consider her “full character” in passing sentence. Rowan said he had been impressed by Javice’s passion, creativity, intelligence and empathy.

“I feel she will make many meaningful contributions to society moving forward,” Rowan wrote. Javice, 33, is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 29.

She was convicted in March. The jury deliberated for less than a day before agreeing with US prosecutors that Javice had lied and faked data to convince JPMorgan that her site, Frank, had more than 4.25 million users when it actually had fewer than 300,000.

The letter by Rowan, who also testified for the defense at Javice’s trial, joined more than 100 others filed earlier in the week in her support. Among these were former JPMorgan executive Blythe Masters, who said she was introduced to Javice by Rowan and similarly served as a mentor to the young entrepreneur.

Prosecutors have yet to recommend a sentence for Javice, though court staff have said she should receive a prison term of around 12 years. 

Her lawyers have asked that she be given “substantially below” that, arguing that the estimated loss of about $200 million from her fraud was “not consequential” for a bank of JPMorgan’s size.

The case is US v. Javice, 23-cr-251, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

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