“We’re talking about a scandal here that involves thousands of their employees cheating tens of thousands of customers out of money and making millions of dollars doing it for the bank”, Warren said in an interview with CNBC.
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“Will Wells Fargo take action to claw back any or all parts of any other senior executive’s incentive compensation ― including your own ― as a result of the settlement with the CFPB and other entities?” they wrote.
Wells Fargo has already fired more than 5,000 employees in the fraud, but so far the company has laid the blame at the feet of low-level workers.
Jennifer Dunn, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo, declined to comment.
Federal regulators discovered employees, since 2011, were secretly creating millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts without ever telling their clients.
Wells Fargo’s chairman and chief executive officer John Stumpf subsequently reached out to bank customers on Tuesday. The Justice Department also has started an investigation that could lead to civil or criminal charges. Please see our terms of service for more information. Prosecutors in Manhattan didn’t return a request for comment.
Singing from the aggrieved bank executive’s favorite songbook, Republicans say Dodd-Frank brings too much confusing red tape, stifles private-sector growth, and simply isn’t necessary.
The Wall Street Journal says U.S. attorneys in NY and California have issues subpoenas the latest twist in a scandal that has cost the bank $185 million in penalties and the jobs of 5,300 employees.
Stumpf told the Wall Street Journal the scam was the employees’ fault.
The Democratic lawmakers asked the Wells Fargo board if it will invoke its “clawback authority”, a legal mechanism to rescind compensation from employees whose performance is later judged to be based on false representations or “inaccurate performance metrics”.
According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Wells Fargo has sought to distinguish itself as a leader in cross selling banking products to existing customers.
A group of Democratic senators, led by Elizabeth Warren of MA, asked Stumpf in a letter dated Thursday whether the bank will claw back top managers’ pay.
The policy activist organization Public Citizen on Friday also announced it had lodged a shareholder resolution calling on Wells Fargo to explore the possibility of breaking itself up.
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The case is Mitchell et al v. Wells Fargo Bank NA et al, U.S. District Court, District of Utah, No. 16-00966.
