The Wells Fargo fake account fiasco continues to draw the attention of regulators who, just like the bank’s executives, somehow spent years not noticing that Wells Fargo employees were opening up bogus accounts to meet strict sales goals. This morning, the bank confirmed a Security and Exchange Commission probe related to this chicanery. [More]
fake account fiasco
New Wells Fargo CEO Begins Mea Culpa Parade With Employees
By 10.26.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
Dozens of former and current Wells Fargo employees have shared their nightmarish experiences — health issues, threats of termination — involving the bank’s fake account fiasco. So aside from affected customers — who may or may not be leaving the bank — it makes sense that the new CEO of the company would apologize to workers. [More]
Report: Fake Account Fiasco Could Cost Wells Fargo $4B, Thousands Of Customers
By 10.25.16
As Wells Fargo continues to grapple with the consequences of its potentially decade-long fake account fiasco, we’re beginning to see what the future might hold for the banking giant: a large loss both financially and in its customer base. [More]
Wells Fargo Employees Say High-Pressure Atmosphere Caused Panic Attacks, Shingles
By 10.21.16
Wells Fargo employees caught up in the bank’s fake account fiasco lost more than their jobs if they did or didn’t meet sales goals: they also say they suffered physically and emotionally from the pressure placed on them by management to “sell, sell, sell.” [More]
Better Business Bureau Strips Wells Fargo Of Accreditation After Fake Account Fiasco
By 10.20.16
Wells Fargo continues to take hits following its fake account fiasco. Following the “retirement” of its CEO John Stumpf, news of a criminal investigation of identity theft, and numerous rounds of questioning by lawmakers, comes news that the financial institution has been stripped of its Better Business Bureau accreditation. [More]
California Investigating Wells Fargo For Criminal Identity Theft
By 10.20.16
In a piece of heartening consumer justice news, it’s recently become public that the state of California is conducting a criminal investigation against Wells Fargo for identity theft. Earlier this month, the state served a search warrant on the bank, which asks for information about customers with fake accounts, and the identities of the bankers who opened those accounts. [More]
Report: Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf Warned Of Widespread Fraud In 2007
By 10.18.16
Recently “retired” Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf claimed before Congress that he first learned about the bank’s fake account fiasco in 2013, but a new report claims that a Wells employee tried to warn him about the problem back in 2007. [More]
Ohio Also Decides It’s Time To Take A Break From Doing Business With Wells Fargo
By 10.14.16
Following in the footsteps of Illinois and California, the state of Ohio has become the latest to take a break from doing business with Wells Fargo until the dark cloud of the current fake account fiasco passes. [More]
Wells Fargo Employee: Bank Hid Truth About 401(k) Plan Amid “Criminal Epidemic”
By 10.14.16
Thousands of Wells Fargo employees have already been fired for opening unauthorized accounts to meet sales goals, but what about all of those employees who remain at the bank? They’ve seen the value of their 401(k) retirement plan sink during this fake account fiasco, and some are saying that Wells hid the truth from them about the huge bogus account sinkhole that was waiting to collapse underneath them. [More]
New Wells Fargo CEO Recently Denied “Overbearing Sales Culture” That Created Fake Account Fiasco
By 10.13.16
Yesterday afternoon, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf announced his sudden “retirement” from the bank that continues to deal with the fallout of a fake account fiasco that saw thousands of Wells employees opening up millions of bogus, unauthorized accounts just to meet high-pressure sales goals and quotas. However, the Wells exec who has stepped into the CEO spot has a history of denying that any such atmosphere existed at the bank. [More]
Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf “Retires” Amid Fake Account Fiasco
By 10.12.16 — Updated: 10.31.16
In the middle of an embarrassing fake account fiasco that may have lasted a decade before being shut down by federal regulators, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has decided that maybe it’s for the best that he “retire” from the bank’s top spot. [More]
Report: Disgraced Wells Fargo Exec Warned About Employees Opening Fake Accounts In 2006
By 10.12.16
In an attempt to determine the extent of its massive fake account fiasco, Wells Fargo has agreed to review account histories going back to 2009. However, the bank has already been presented with evidence that employees may have been opening bogus accounts before that, and a new report appears to show that the Wells executive blamed for turning a blind eye to this chicanery was actually warned about fake accounts a decade ago. [More]
14 Senators Agree: DOJ Needs To Investigate, Prosecute Wells Fargo Executives
By 10.5.16
Thousands of Wells Fargo employees were let go after federal and state regulators exposed the long-running fake account fiasco, and the civil lawsuits and congressional investigations into the matter are beginning to pile up. Now a coalition of 14 senators are asking the Department of Justice to launch a criminal investigation in the hope of ferreting out individuals at Wells Fargo who may have encouraged or turned a blind eye to this fraud. [More]
Senator Says Wells Fargo Fake Account Fiasco May Have Also Hit Small Businesses
By 10.4.16
Much of the attention surrounding the ongoing Wells Fargo fake account fiasco has focused on the millions of individual banking and credit customers who had bogus accounts opened in their name without authorization. But Wells Fargo is also a major provider of small business loans and accounts, and the head of the Senate Small Business Committee wants the bank to find out how many, if any, of these customers were affected by this widespread fraud. [More]
Illinois, California End Some Business With Wells Fargo — At Least For Now
By 10.3.16
The fallout from the Wells Fargo fake account fiasco continues to pile up, with state officials in both California and Illinois announcing they would stop doing business with the bank for the time-being. [More]
Lawmaker Presents Wells Fargo With Evidence Of Potential Account Fraud From 2007
By 9.30.16
At yesterday’s contentious House Financial Services Committee hearing on the Wells Fargo fake account fiasco, CEO John Stumpf said his bank was reviewing accounts going back to 2009 to see how long employees had been opening new accounts in customers’ names without authorization. Now one member of Congress says there is evidence indicating that this sort of bad behavior goes back nearly a decade. [More]
Lawmakers Who Received Money From Wells Fargo Now Want Answers From Bank’s CEO
By and 9.29.16 — Updated: 10.3.16
Imagine you’re a politician who received tens of thousands of dollars in recent years from a bank, and hundreds of thousands from a banking industry that wants to do away with new consumer protections. Then that bank is caught opening up millions of fake accounts without authorization. If you’re one of these bank-backed legislators, this huge scandal is apparently an opportunity to take shots at the federal regulator the banking industry has been trying to undermine since its creation. [More]
Wells Fargo Employee: I Tried Talking Friends & Family Into Opening Accounts To Meet Sales Quotas
By 9.29.16 — Updated: 9.30.16
Yet another former Wells Fargo employee has come forward to talk about the high-pressure atmosphere created by the bank, where she says there were only two types of employees: those who sold customers on products they didn’t want, and those that were shown the door. [More]
