Wells Fargo Crashes After Fed's Shocking Crackdown Bans Bank From Growing

2/2/2018 Wells Fargo may be Warren Buffett's favorite bank, but the endorsement of America's favorite benevolent plutocrat hasn't spared it from an unusually severe punishment: two hours after markets closed on Janet Yellen's last day in office, the Fed announced unexpectedly harsh sanctions against Wells for a host of consumer and oversight abuses dating back to its infamous cross-selling scandal, barring the bank from growing until it fixes its criminal culture.

11/6/17 Wells Fargo Now Expects To Pay $130 Million To Customers Affected By Auto Insurance Scandal

Wells Fargo now projects it�ll pay $50 million more than previous expected to people affected by a widespread auto insurance scandal, bringing the total to $130 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The practice involved selling auto insurance to about 800,000 customers who didn�t need the coverage.

In July, the San Francisco-based bank admitted that as many as 800,000 people bought auto insurance from Wells they didn�t actually need. Wells required customers who obtained an auto loan to provide proof of insurance; if they didn�t Wells would purchase coverage for them.

When customers received a loan from Wells to purchase a car, their information would be sent along to National General, the company that provided insurance for Wells to customers that didn�t provide proof of insurance. The insurer was supposed to confirm if an owner already had coverage�and if they didn�t, the collateral insurance would be immediately added to their account.

The issue, Wells said at the time, was that a failure of internal controls led to a significant number of people improperly paying for additional coverage. As many as 25,000 people had their cars wrongly repossessed as a result of the fiasco.

At the time the scandal emerged, Wells said that a review of the collateral insurance program began in June 2016, following several customer complaints. A few months later, the program was discontinued. The company said on Friday that it began sending refund checks in August to affected customers who received policies between Jan. 1, 2012 and Sept. 30, 2016.

Customers from as far back as October 2005 may be eligible for a refund, Wells said in the filing.

The company said it now expects to provide $100 million in cash remediation, up from a previous estimate of $64 million, as well as $30 million in account adjustments, up from $16 million.

Among the myriad scandals and allegations ensnaring Wells, the company also said in the filing Friday that a former employee has accused it of retaliation for speaking up about the auto insurance practice.

When CNN asked about the retaliation claim, Wells declined to comment. source

How Wells Fargo Screwed $80 Million Out Of Customers Using Unnecessary Car Insurance

A week after New York resident Juan Thomas bought a 2004 BMW 745i, in December 2012, the bank that financed the purchase�Wells Fargo�contacted him to say that he needed additional auto insurance for the vehicle. This was a bit odd, mainly because the car was already insured. �It didn�t sound right to me,� Thomas said. A month later, he heard again from a Wells Fargo representative, who again claimed his car wasn�t insured. Soon after, he received a bill and found that Wells had placed a collateral protection insurance policy on his account.

�From then on, my [cost] just kept going up going up,� Thomas said in an interview. He repeatedly spoke with Wells Fargo representatives, sent along proof of his insurance, but nothing changed. With the insurance, Wells increased his monthly payment from $413.48 to about $600, at first, to, eventually, $1,000.

�It seemed like I was never going to get out of debt for this car,� Thomas said.

Regulators Are Going After Wells Fargo For An Auto Insurance Scandal Impacting 500,000 Consumers
Last week, Wells Fargo announced it would reimburse $80 million to 570,000 people who may have been �

Thomas, 55, is one of roughly 800,000 people who were affected by a scheme from the bank that involved forcing customers to purchase auto insurance they didn�t need. The San Francisco-based company has since apologized, but only after the scandal was revealed in July by The New York Times, which obtained a 60-page internal report on the situation that was prepared for Wells Fargo executives.

The four-year period that was covered by the report found the scheme impacted hundreds of thousands of consumers, and interviews and court records reviewed by Jalopnik recently show just how much of an emotional toll it has taken on them.

Wells has previously said that a review of the collateral insurance program was launched in June 2016, following a string of customer concerns, and the program was discontinued a few months later. But revelations of the scheme didn�t emerge until the Times report was published. A spokesperson for Wells declined to provide a copy of the report and Oliver Wyman, the consultant firm that prepared the review, didn�t respond to a request for a copy.

The four-year period that was covered by the report found a scenario that impacted thousands of consumers, according to the Times, with an estimated 274,000 becoming delinquent on their account, while around 25,000 vehicles were wrongfully repossessed. In addition, some 60,000 customers who live in states where banks must inform consumers if insurance is imposed were never properly notified.

Wells has since disputed its own numbers cited by the Times. The bank has said it later determined that 570,000 customers may qualify for a refund, and that the insurance scheme led to only about 20,000 repossessions.

Yet, those are still huge numbers, and Wells has said it plans to reimburse $80 million in total for remediation.

For Thomas, that relief isn�t enough. Five years on, he�s still making payments.

�The credit that they�re giving me, it doesn�t add up to the money that I sent,� he said. Thomas filed a lawsuit last week against the company in federal court.

A Wells Fargo spokeswoman declined to comment on the suit, and described the Oliver Wyman report as a �preliminary� step toward determining �who was going to be a part of the remediation.�

�We shared our remediation approach with regulators and we continue to engage with them,� the spokeswoman said. �We are continuously reviewing our accounts and reviewing the issue as its an ongoing remediation.�

�This was a breakdown in internal controls,� she added.

�What Are You Talking About?�

The trouble for Thomas started soon after he bought his BMW in late 2012.

The 7 Series caught his eye while surfing the Internet one day, he said. Thomas called the dealership in New Jersey listing the car, and, soon after, he was cleared to purchase it.

�So me and my brother rode up there to see if it�s true,� Thomas said. Sure enough, the car was his with a $2,500 downpayment. He signed a contract for a 48-month loan that was financed through Wells Fargo Dealer Services, with a monthly payment of $413.48 beginning in February 2013. All in all, not a terrible deal for a used flagship BMW sedan.

A week later, Thomas said, the frustrating calls began.

�I got the car registered and all that kind of stuff,� he said. But the bank told Thomas he needed collateral insurance. �I was like, �Well, I have collateral insurance, what are you talking about?��

In the intervening months, Thomas said he spoke with innumerable Wells Fargo reps and sent proof of his insurance, to no avail. Thomas felt the bank-purchased policy was bogus and refused to pay the additional amount for the insurance, according to his lawsuit.

By not paying the additional cost, late fees racked up. Thomas said the 48-month terms have been extended by years, costing him above and beyond what he was initially supposed to pay, all the while hurting his credit score.

And if Thomas wasn�t calling the bank to try to resolve the issue, Wells tried to chase him down to get the full payment, he said. Calls came at all hours of the day.

�It was like they were playing games,� he said.

How It Worked

Contracts that customers sign for an auto loan with Wells require them to maintain �comprehensive and collision physical damage insurance,� the company said in a July statement. If Wells found there was no evidence that a customer already had insurance, the bank was contractually allowed to purchase collision protection coverage for them.

The insurance was provided through the company�s Dealer Services unit, which says that Wells has more than four million auto finance customers. The dealer unit makes it plain in writing what a customer should expect if Wells purchases auto insurance on their behalf: the coverage �may be considerably more expensive than insurance� obtained elsewhere.

The lender-placed insurance began in early 2006, and National General Insurance underwrote the policies. Wells is unusual among major financial institutions for providing lender-placed insurance, the Times reported. Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, for instance, don�t offer similar policies.

When customers bought a car through Wells, their information would be sent along to National General, the Times reported. The insurer was supposed to confirm if an owner already had coverage�and if they didn�t, the collateral insurance would be immediately added to their account.

If a customer called the bank to ask about why they were receiving a redundant charge, and had proof of adequate insurance, the policy was supposed to be canceled, the Times reported. Wells then should�ve provided a credit to their account.

But, for whatever reason, in many cases this didn�t happen, and it was a situation that wreaked havoc on customers who automatically had their payments deducted from a bank account, as many might not have been aware that their payments were rising at all. The internal report found that many customers didn�t contact Wells about the extra insurance.

It�s also unclear why the situation was prolonged for so many years. Wells said the internal review found that �certain external vendor processes and internal controls were inadequate,� leading to extra premium charges for insurance that consumers didn�t even need.

A spokesperson for National General didn�t respond to a request for comment.

Under The Microscope

In recent days, Wells has increasingly taken heat for aggressive sales tactics linked to a separate scandal involving millions of fraudulent accounts that were opened for customers without authorization. The Wells spokeswoman said the auto insurance situation is entirely separate and attributed it solely to a breakdown in internal controls.

But lawmakers in the U.S. Senate said the auto insurance scandal appears �eerily similar� to the fake account scheme that was revealed last year. In a letter to the bank�s CEO and chairman, a group of senators�including Democrat Elizabeth Warren�demanded answers to a series of questions about why the insurance situation played out for so many years.

�The practices uncovered by this report raise myriad questions about Wells Fargo�s business practices, risk management structure, and willingness to hold responsible parties accountable,� the letter said.

Whether it was outright, purposeful negligence that�s customary to Wall Street, or simply a failure of the bank�s day-to-day procedures, Wells now finds itself in the crosshairs of regulators and consumers who�ve filed a litany of lawsuits in recent weeks.

New York state regulators issued subpoenas to the company early last month. (The spokeswoman declined to comment on the subpoenas.) Days later, a separate issue emerged, when the company admitted it had failed to refund guaranteed auto protection, or GAP, insurance money to people who paid their car loans off early.

Complaints filed to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau show that Thomas isn�t alone with issues over Wells purchasing insurance and placing it on consumer loans.

In one complaint filed with the bureau in September 2016, an unnamed customer from Florida said he was hit with a significant additional auto insurance policy on his Toyota Prius that he hadn�t authorized.

�Earlier this year they tagged my auto loan with an extra {$2,000.00} additional car insurance even though we fax the policy to them numerous times,� the complaint said. �They declined to respond until I reached out to CFPB.�

Lingering Damage

Kaylani Ross and Dee Lenz didn�t have as much luck. In May 2014, the pair purchased a 2009 GMG Envoy with a loan from Wells Fargo. At the time, according to a lawsuit filed last month, Ross and Lenz obtained auto insurance from Geico. When the policy ended, Wells placed a collateral protection insurance policy on their account.

Later, the pair obtained auto insurance on their own and told Wells to stop billing them for the lender-placed policy. According to the complaint, Wells never did.

Ultimately, the Envoy was repossessed. The bank�s internal report found that some customers had their vehicles repossessed multiple times, according to the Times.

�The victims of this scandal not only lost their cars, in some instances, but they were also left with damaged credit that is still not repaired,� said Kellie Lerner, partner at Robins Kaplan LLP and counsel for Ross and Lenz.

�Wells Fargo is clearly under the microscope now after it has disclosed one scandal after another in recent months.� source

10/23/17 Ex-HSBC executive found guilty of fraud in $3.5 bln currency trade

A U.S. jury on Monday found a former HSBC Holdings Plc executive guilty of defrauding Cairn Energy Plc in a $3.5 billion currency trade in 2011.

The verdict was read in federal court in Brooklyn, where Johnson was on trial for nearly four weeks.
U.S. prosecutors have said that Johnson, formerly head of HSBC's global foreign exchange cash trading desk, schemed to ramp up the price of British pounds before executing a trade for Cairn, making millions for HSBC at Cairn's expence. source

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9/1/2017 Wells Fargo says 3.5M fake accounts involved in scandal

NEW YORK -- The scope of Wells Fargo's fake accounts scandal grew significantly on Thursday, with the bank now saying that 3.5 million accounts were potentially opened without customers' permission between 2009 and 2016.

Wells Fargo also acknowledged that roughly half a million of the newly discovered accounts were missed during the original review of the years 2011 to 2015 when the bank admitted the scandal nearly a year ago.

After Wells Fargo said last year that its employees under pressure to meet aggressive sales targets had opened up to 2.1 million accounts between 2011 and 2015 without getting customers' permission, evidence quickly appeared that the bank's sales practices problems dated back even further.

So Wells Fargo last year hired an outside consulting firm to do an analysis of 165 million retail bank accounts opened between 2009 and 2016.

The firm found that, along with the 2.1 million accounts originally disclosed, 981,000 more accounts were found in the expanded timeline of 2009 to September 2016, Wells said. And roughly 450,000 accounts were found in the original window.

Of the 3.5 million accounts potentially opened without permission, 190,000 of those incurred fees and charges, Wells said. That's up from 130,000 that the bank originally said. Wels Fargo will refund $2.8 million to the affected customers, in addition to the $3.3 million the bank already agreed to pay.

MORE: Wells Fargo details sales scandal findings, seizing $75M in compensation from 2 former execs

In addition, Wells admitted that 528,000 customers were likely signed up for online bill payment without authorization as well. The bank will refund $910,000 in fees to those affected customers.

"To rebuild trust and to build a better Wells Fargo, our first priority is to make things right for our customers, and the completion of this expanded third-party analysis is an important milestone," Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan said in a statement.

Wells Fargo has been trying to repair its reputation since the admission about the possibly fake accounts last fall. The company ended up paying $185 million to regulators and settled a class-action suit for $142 million.

Bottom Line: wells fargo bank is a Fraudulent bank they Cheat, Lie and Steal and they finally got caught for some of many illegal unethical shenanigans. They should be shut down and CEO should be in Jail but no he resigns and gets 150 million dollars of the victims stolen money and wells fargo allowed to continue doing business.

WHY WOULD ANYONE USE THEM?

Wells Fargo commits more FRAUD on it's depositors, account holders and customers

July 28,2017 More than 800,000 people who took out car loans from Wells Fargo were charged for auto insurance they did not need, and some of them are still paying for it, according to an internal report prepared for the bank�s executives.
The expense of the unneeded insurance, which covered collision damage, pushed roughly 274,000 Wells Fargo customers into delinquency and resulted in almost 25,000 wrongful vehicle repossessions, according to the 60-page report, which was obtained by The New York Times. Among the Wells Fargo customers hurt by the practice were military service members on active duty.
Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in the United States, is struggling to repair its image after a scandal in which its employees created millions of credit card and bank accounts that customers had never requested. That crisis, which came to a head last year, toppled Wells Fargo�s chief executive and led to millions of dollars in fines.
The bank also stands accused of having made improper adjustments to the terms of the home loans of customers who were in bankruptcy, which Wells Fargo denies.
Asked about the findings on auto insurance, Wells Fargo officials confirmed that the improper insurance practices took place and said the bank was determined to make customers whole.

�We have a huge responsibility and fell short of our ideals for managing and providing oversight of the third-party vendor and our own operations,� Franklin R. Codel, the head of consumer lending at Wells Fargo, said in an interview. �We self-identified this issue, and we made the right business decisions to end the placement of the product.�
The report, which was prepared by the consulting firm Oliver Wyman, looked at insurance policies sold to Wells customers from January 2012 through July 2016. The insurance, which the bank required, was more expensive than auto insurance that customers often already had obtained on their own.
National General Insurance underwrote the policies for Wells Fargo, which began to require the insurance on auto loans as early as 2006. The practice continued until the end of September.

Wells Fargo�s headquarters in San Francisco�s Financial District.

Christine Worley, a spokeswoman for National General, declined to comment.
For borrowers, delinquencies arose quickly because of the way the bank charged for the insurance. Say, for example, that a customer agreed to a monthly payment of $275 in principal and interest on her car loan, and arranged for the amount to be deducted from her bank account automatically. If she were not advised about the insurance and it increased her monthly payment to, say, $325, her account could become overdrawn as soon as Wells Fargo added the coverage.
The report tried to determine how many Wells Fargo customers were hurt and how much they should be compensated. It estimated that the bank owed $73 million to wronged customers.
State insurance regulations required Wells Fargo to notify customers of the insurance before it was imposed. But the bank did not always do so, the report said. And almost 100,000 of the policies violated the disclosure requirements of five states � Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Tennessee and Washington.
Wells Fargo took issue with some of the figures in its own report. In a statement, Jennifer A. Temple, a bank spokeswoman, said the bank determined only 570,000 of its customers may qualify for a refund and that just 60,000 customers in the five states had not received complete disclosures before the insurance placement. Finally, she said, the bank estimated the insurance may have contributed to 20,000 wrongful repossessions, not 25,000.
�We take full responsibility for these errors and are deeply sorry for any harm we caused customers,� Ms. Temple added.
Requiring borrowers to be insured is common in the mortgage arena, where banks expect customers to carry enough homeowners� insurance to protect the property backing their loans. The term for the practice is �lender-placed insurance.� Pressing such insurance on auto borrowers, however, is not as common: Representatives of Bank of America, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase said they did not offer the policies, though some smaller banks do.

In the Wells Fargo arrangement, National General receives all of the commissions on the insurance it sold to the bank�s borrowers. But for a time the bank shared in those revenues. Wells stopped sharing in the commissions in February 2013, according to the report.
Asked about the bank�s insurance practices, Bryan Hubbard, a spokesman for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Wells Fargo�s regulator, said, �I cannot comment on specific ongoing supervisory matters or potential pending actions pertaining to a particular bank.�
Wells Fargo borrowers sustained financial damages beyond the costs of the insurance, the report said. The harm also included repossession costs, late fees, charges for insufficient funds and damage to consumers� credit reports.
Missteps and Scandal
From sham accounts to releasing client data, Wells Fargo has drawn negative attention several times over the past year.
Client Data Mistakenly Released �There are thousands of documents in here that the public should never see,� said a former Wells Fargo employee.
Improper Mortgage Changes �When I realized it was a pattern of filing false documents with the federal court, that was appalling," said a lawyer who assumed the bank had made a clerical error.
$185 Million Fine for Sham Accounts Regulators said the illegal practices, first reported in 2013, reflected serious flaws. The bank fired 5,300 mostly low-level employees.
Ex-Workers File Suits �These are the people who have been left holding the bag,� said a lawyer for the workers who did not create improper accounts and did not meet sales goals.
�Lions Hunting Zebras� In opening those accounts, the bank targeted immigrants who spoke little English and older adults with memory problems, ex-workers said.
Scrutiny for U5 Files �It�s like being blackballed,� said a lawyer who specializes in Finra arbitration. �It can be a showstopper for a career.�
Smothering Customer Lawsuits The bank is killing lawsuits by moving them into private arbitration. �It is ridiculous,� said a woman suing over sham accounts.

In recent years, consumers have complained to federal regulators about lender-placed insurance on auto loans, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau�s database shows. Many complaints identified Wells Fargo. In one example, an unidentified Wells Fargo customer reported providing proof to the bank on three occasions that the car was already insured and the new insurance was unnecessary, only to continue receiving calls from bank employees demanding payment of insurance charges.
Wells Fargo automatically imposed the insurance through its Dealer Services unit. Its website says it has more than four million customers and provides a variety of banking services to 14,000 auto dealers around the nation. It says the company�s lender-placed auto insurance �may be considerably more expensive than insurance you can obtain on your own.�
Such policies typically cost more than $1,000 a year, not counting interest. (Customers could pay them in full or finance them over time.) If a car was repossessed, the bank might charge a reinstatement fee of as much as $500, so a borrower could face $1,500 in charges.
Here is how the process worked: When customers financed cars with Wells Fargo, the buyers� information would go to National General, which was supposed to check a database to see if the owner had insurance coverage. If not, the insurer would automatically impose coverage on the customers� accounts, adding an extra layer of premiums and interest to their loans.
When customers who checked their bills saw the charges and notified Wells Fargo that they already had car insurance, the bank was supposed to cancel the insurance and credit the borrower with the amount that had been charged.
The Oliver Wyman report indicated that many customers appear not to have notified Wells Fargo of the redundant insurance. This may have been because their payments were deducted automatically from their bank accounts and they did not spot the charges.
According to documents on a Wells Fargo website titled �understanding your auto loan,� the bank had strict rules about the order in which it would apply a customer�s car payment to costs associated with the loan: First to be deducted from a payment would be the interest owed on the car loan. Then the bank would deduct interest charged on the lender-placed insurance. The third deduction would be principal on the loan, followed by the amount of premium owed on the insurance.
This payment structure had the effect of increasing the overall interest borrowers paid on their loans, the Oliver Wyman report noted, because fewer dollars went to reducing the principal outstanding.
Wells Fargo was also aggressive in repossessing vehicles: Some customers endured multiple repossessions, the report said.
Last fall, Wells Fargo Dealer Services had a run-in with regulators, and it agreed to pay $4 million in a settlement with the Justice Department over illegally repossessing cars of military service members. Since that settlement, three top executives have left the Dealer Services division. source

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Wells Fargo Gets Regulatory Questions After Data Breach  - By Laura J Keller July 22, 2017
Bank�s lawyer mistakenly releases data on 50,000 accounts
Mishap follows last year�s costly fake-account scandal
Wells Fargo & Co., already in the regulatory spotlight because of last year�s fake-account scandal, is drawing renewed scrutiny after a lawyer�s unauthorized release of sensitive client details for tens of thousands of accounts belonging to wealthy customers of its brokerage unit.

Regulators have started asking questions about the breach, according to a person with knowledge of the matter, after the data was mistakenly provided to an attorney as part of a lawsuit involving two brothers, one a Wells Fargo employee and the other a former employee. A person briefed on the matter said Wells Fargo has determined the accounts were all from one brokerage branch in the Northeast.

Representatives of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority informally contacted at least one of the attorneys involved in the dispute for information about how the breach occurred and how Wells Fargo failed to detect it, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn�t public. Lawyers for the bank are taking steps to contact regulators about the data breach, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. The person didn�t specify which agencies.

Ray Pellecchia, a spokesman for Finra, which licenses and supervises Wall Street workers including financial advisers, didn�t have an immediate comment. Judith Burns, a spokeswoman for the Securities and Exchange Commission, declined to comment. Representatives for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency didn�t immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

�Thoroughly Investigate�

While this latest black eye may not rise to the level of the retail-bank debacle, it further calls into question Wells Fargo�s ability to manage its people and information.

�Wells Fargo takes the security and privacy of our customers� information very seriously," the bank said in a statement. "We are currently taking legal action to ensure the additional data is not disseminated, and we are requesting its rapid return. We continue to thoroughly investigate this matter and will take the proper steps, including corrective action, based on the outcome of our investigation.�

The bank�s latest troubles come just 10 months after regulators disclosed that Wells Fargo employees had been opening potentially millions of accounts in its retail banking division without customers� permission over a half decade. The bank�s stock valuation and reputation were tarnished, and Wells Fargo has spent at least $520 million on fines, remediation, consultants and civil litigation since then, including a near-final $142 million to consumers who accused the bank of creating bogus accounts.

Insufficient Oversight

The OCC, the bank�s main regulator, said in September Wells Fargo had "failed to provide sufficient oversight" of its sales programs and didn�t adequately monitor employees in its retail bank. Part of the consent order the OCC forced the bank to carry out afterward included beefing up internal controls and risk management.

The recent data breach began with a financial spat between a pair of brothers over less than $1 million. Gary Sinderbrand, a former managing director at Wells Fargo Advisors, is engaged in two legal actions against his older brother Steven Sinderbrand, a managing director at the bank, one in New York and one in New Jersey.

Lawyers for Gary Sinderbrand received client names, Social Security numbers and account balances earlier this month for 50,000 Wells Fargo accounts, the New York Times first reported, including one file with details on the holdings of a "well-known hedge fund billionaire" with at least $23 million invested.

Protective Order

The trove of confidential client data was sent by attorney Angela A. Turiano of law firm Bressler, Amery & Ross, who�s representing Wells Fargo in both of the disputes. Turiano sent the information without a protective order or confidentiality agreement between the parties.

Turiano, who indicated that an outside vendor was involved in the information breach, asked the information be returned when Gary Sinderbrand�s attorneys informed her of the breach this week, the New York Times reported. Turiano didn�t return messages for comment on Saturday.

Gary Sinderbrand�s lawyers had been seeking documents related to a squabble over allegedly unpaid fees for a consulting arrangement with his brother. Sinderbrand alleges Wells Fargo knew about and approved of a verbal arrangement that he provide risk-management and client-retention coaching to his brother Steven, while Gary Sinderbrand took a two-year sabbatical from managing wealthy clients� money.

The New York dispute is over what Gary Sinderbrand alleges is roughly $870,000 more he�s owed from 50 percent of fees his brother made managing their joint book of client business over a period of about two years.

Andrew L. Miller and Aaron Zeisler, attorneys for Gary Sinderbrand, either declined to comment or didn�t immediately return messages on Saturday. The brothers didn�t return messages seeking comment.   source

Our question: WHY IS WELLS FARGO STILL IN BUSINESS & NOT IN JAIL?

Seven Wells Fargo Managers in Board�s Review�and Their Fates (April 11, 2017)

When Wells Fargo & Co.�s board released a 113-page report Monday describing how staff opened bogus customer accounts, investigators aimed much of their criticism at the bank�s former leader, John Stumpf, and the head of its retail division, Carrie Tolstedt.

But the report also characterized the actions of more than a dozen other top executives and subordinates who saw warnings signs, ran operations where abuses flourished or tried to raise alarms. Here are snapshots of seven based on the report, as well as their fates (they either didn�t respond to messages seeking comment, or referred them to company spokeswomen who declined to comment):

Patricia �Pat� Callahan: Described by Stumpf as a confidante, she held a number of senior posts and led Wachovia Corp.�s integration from 2008 before becoming chief administrative officer in 2011. She was aware the community bank was firing roughly 1,000 people annually for improper sales. After a Los Angeles Times story cast a spotlight on sales abuses in 2013, she pushed to address the problem and limit reputational damage, writing in an email that she hoped the story �doesn�t become national.� Still, �Callahan did not raise sales practice issues with the board,� the report found. She retired in 2015.
Hope Hardison: The former human resources director succeeded Callahan as chief administrative officer. At HR, she was long aware of issues with sales practices, but didn�t initially understand them to be pervasive, investigators said. A subordinate sent her a report in 2013 that included a table of incidents and terminations, but she didn�t recall reviewing it in detail. Her concern mounted after the Los Angeles Times story, and after hearing at an April 2014 meeting about 1,000 firings, she �had a strong negative reaction� and pushed for the community bank to do more to fix the problem.
James Strother: As general counsel, Strother kicked off a May 2015 presentation to the board�s risk committee (the board doesn�t specify what he said), before Tolstedt spoke. Some directors later said the meeting left them with the impression that only 230 people had been terminated for sales abuses over the prior two years. In reality, it was more like 2,500. The bank persuaded Strother, 65, last year to delay retirement amid the scandal�s fallout.
John Sotoodeh: While overseeing a growing number of branches, he �displayed a high-pressure management style,� particularly in San Diego, investigators wrote. He later oversaw Los Angeles when it became the epicenter of a type of misconduct known as simulated funding, in which staff temporarily moved money into bogus customer accounts. �However, multiple witnesses described Sotoodeh as having made significant attempts to improve the sales culture,� and his area�s metrics improved, the report found. After he rose higher, the bank demoted him last month to run a smaller four-state region.
Lisa Stevens: The regional manager was a �vocal advocate� within the community bank for changing sales goals and the behavior they encouraged, according to the report. She raised concerns with senior employees outside the division including the bank�s chief risk officer, Michael Loughlin. At one point, Tolstedt found out and told her to stop talking with him, the authors wrote.
Michael Loughlin: He became the company�s risk chief in 2010 but didn�t have �directive power to enforce changes� on some businesses because of a decentralized management structure, according to the report. Still, he wrote in 2013 that he should have pushed Tolstedt to do more about sales problems. As it responds to the scandal, Wells Fargo is shifting risk personnel to give him more control.
Mary Mack: The report only mentions the former Wells Fargo brokerage chief one time -- as Tolstedt�s replacement. Last month, Mack restructured the community bank�s leadership. New Chief Executive Officer Tim Sloan told journalists on a call Monday there isn�t �another large shoe to drop� on management changes.
An attorney for Stumpf declined to comment on the report. Tolstedt, who declined to be interviewed for the investigation, rejected its conclusions in a statement from her attorney.

�We strongly disagree with the report and its attempt to lay blame with Ms. Tolstedt,� said Enu Mainigi, a lawyer with Williams & Connolly LLP. �A full and fair examination of the facts will produce a different conclusion.�

ROTHSCHILD OWNED & CONTROLLED BANKS:

Afghanistan: Bank of Afghanistan
Albania: Bank of Albania
Algeria: Bank of Algeria
Argentina: Central Bank of Argentina
Armenia: Central Bank of Armenia
Aruba: Central Bank of Aruba
Australia: Reserve Bank of Australia
Austria: Austrian National Bank
Azerbaijan: Central Bank of Azerbaijan Republic
Bahamas: Central Bank of The Bahamas
Bahrain: Central Bank of Bahrain
Bangladesh: Bangladesh Bank
Barbados: Central Bank of Barbados
Belarus: National Bank of the Republic of Belarus
Belgium: National Bank of Belgium
Belize: Central Bank of Belize
Benin: Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO)
Bermuda: Bermuda Monetary Authority
Bhutan: Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan
Bolivia: Central Bank of Bolivia
Bosnia: Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana: Bank of Botswana
Brazil: Central Bank of Brazil
Bulgaria: Bulgarian National Bank
Burkina Faso: Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO)
Burundi: Bank of the Republic of Burundi
Cambodia: National Bank of Cambodia
Came Roon: Bank of Central African States
Canada: Bank of Canada � Banque du Canada
Cayman Islands: Cayman Islands Monetary Authority
Central African Republic: Bank of Central African States
Chad: Bank of Central African States
Chile: Central Bank of Chile
China: The People�s Bank of China
Colombia: Bank of the Republic
Comoros: Central Bank of Comoros
Congo: Bank of Central African States
Costa Rica: Central Bank of Costa Rica
C�te d�Ivoire: Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO)
Croatia: Croatian National Bank
Cuba: Central Bank of Cuba
Cyprus: Central Bank of Cyprus
Czech Republic: Czech National Bank
Denmark: National Bank of Denmark
Dominican Republic: Central Bank of the Dominican Republic
East Caribbean area: Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
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California attorney general investigating Wells Fargo over identity theft claims
Published time: 20 Oct, 2016
The California Attorney General�s Office has launched an investigation into whether Wells Fargo committed criminal identity theft, in the wake of the sales practices scandal that ousted the bank�s CEO.
A search warrant was served to Wells Fargo on October 5 and was first obtained by the Los Angeles Times. It showed California Attorney General Kamala Harris demanding the identities and account information of California customers who had �any accounts, credit cards, life insurance, or other product or service,� created without customers� authorization between May 2011 and July 2015.

The warrant also demands the names of bank employees who opened the unauthorized accounts and identities of employees� managers, including �any and all communications, including email referencing� the bogus accounts.

Harris is also seeking information for customers who do not live in California.

A spokesperson for Wells Fargo said the bank is �cooperating in providing the requested information.�

A 14-page affidavit filed with the search warrant said investigators are looking into potential violations of state law banning impersonation of another and the unauthorized use of personal information, the LA Times reports. Both offenses are considered felonies and are punishable by more than a year�s imprisonment.

The warrant also demands the names of bank employees who opened the unauthorized accounts and identities of employees� managers, including �any and all communications, including email referencing� the bogus accounts.

Harris is also seeking information for customers who do not live in California.

A spokesperson for Wells Fargo said the bank is �cooperating in providing the requested information.�

A 14-page affidavit filed with the search warrant said investigators are looking into potential violations of state law banning impersonation of another and the unauthorized use of personal information, the LA Times reports. Both offenses are considered felonies and are punishable by more than a year�s imprisonment.

It�s not certain whether Harris, who is running for election for the US Senate this November, is considering charges against individual bank workers, high-level bank executives or the bank itself. The claim of �identity theft� is also being seen as novel.

�One wouldn�t typically think of a financial institution opening an account in the name of a customer as being an act of identity theft,� Paul Stephen, police director at the San Diego nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, told the LA Times. �It�s a creative way of looking at these activities and finding them unlawful under a statute that arguably could be prosecuted in state court.�

Wells Fargo has already agreed to a settlement for $185 million with the Los Angeles City Attorney�s Office and federal regulators in early September over the 2 million fake bank accounts.

During that investigation one victim, identified only as "Ms. B," said she had declined a request by a Wells Fargo teller in late 2011 or 2012 to open new accounts.

But sometime in late 2013 or early 2014, she started to receive notices that she and her husband "allegedly owned on three life insurance policies held by the bank," the affidavit says.

She also told the investigator that Wells Fargo often claimed that her accounts had to be closed and reopened because of "problems" that it could never fully explain. The constant changes, she added, sometimes caused her to incur fees because her checks would bounce.

Another day, another $185mn: Wells Fargo fined for opening fake accounts

Another alleged victim, identified as "Ms. C," told the investigator she noticed the bank was transferring money from her checking account to her savings account in amounts that grew over time, from $50 to $150.

The bank claimed the transfers were done as overdraft protection, but it refused to provide her bank statements when she asked to see them.

Last week, Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf resigned a few weeks after the bank�s board required him to forfeit $41 million in invested equity. He still retired with $134.1 million.

US attorneys in San Francisco, New York and Charlotte, North Carolina, have opened their own investigations.

Wells Fargo is also under investigation by the federal Labor Department, an outside law firm hired by the bank�s board, and two congressional committees. source

Ohio State announces plans to stop doing business with Wells Fargo Published 15 Oct, 2016

Ohio Governor John Kasich became the first state-level Republican to take action against Wells Fargo after suspending the big bank from doing business with the state. This makes the Buckeye State the third to officially halt business with the bank.
The Wells Fargo fraudulent accounts scandal continues to rock the bank and jeopardize its business dealings. After allegations against the San Francisco-based bank revealed that employees had opened up unauthorized customer accounts to reach sales targets, the fallout resulted in Wells Fargo losing the ability to work with state bonds.

Governor Kasich (R) said in a statement, "while Wells Fargo only does limited retail banking in Ohio, it does regularly seek state bond business so I have instructed my administration to seek services from other banks instead.�

"This company has lost the right to do business with the state of Ohio because its actions have cost it the public's confidence," he added.

This could present a sizable loss to the company. In the past four years alone, Wells Fargo has participated in about $830 million of Ohio�s state bond offerings, according to Associated Press.

The ban against Wells Fargo is set to last a year, but it could be extended if new Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan does not repair the bank�s reputation with the public.

Ohio is not alone in their concerns that Sloan would be more of the same. California State Treasurer John Chiang told CNBC that he was apprehensive that the new top executive would offer anything different than former CEO John Stumpf.

On Thursday, Chiang appeared on �Closing Bell� and explained, �If we're going to have more of the same, that's not acceptable.�

"We are beyond the point of tweaking. We want to see fundamental reform of Wells Fargo before we make a decision," he said.

Given that California is the nation�s top issuer of municipal debt, their sanctions could cost the bank millions.

Illinois set the trend earlier this month when Treasurer Michael Frerichs announced his office would suspend its annual $30 billion in investment activity for one year with the potential for an extension, USA Today reported. In a presser, Frerichs said, "Wells Fargo is a big financial player in Illinois, and I hope to send the message that their unscrupulous practices are not welcomed and will not be tolerated.�

However, Wells Fargo spokesman Gabriel Boehmer downplayed the ramifications of losing Illinois contracts, telling USA Today, "Respectfully, the actual amount in lost revenue for the company from business conducted with the Illinois Treasurer�s office is approximately $50,000 per year.�

Wells Fargo did, however, lose a substantial bond from the city of Seattle. A letter from Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, council president Bruce Harrell and budget committee chair Tim Burgess explained that they would no longer work with the bank as a lender on a $100 million bond with their city�s public utility provider.

In their letter, the trio held Wells Fargo responsible for the practices that led to the scandal. They wrote, �Wells Fargo's practice of opening accounts in customers' names without their knowledge or approval is reprehensible, particularly in that it appears this strategy was not only condoned by management, but encouraged,� according to KIRO.

The scathing letter continued, saying, �your organization's underhanded practices greatly harm not only the customers who have been shouldered with bogus fees and unfairly reduced credit scores through no fault of their own, but also your own reputation and relationship with your institutional customers, including the City of Seattle.�

Seattle officials stressed the need for Wells Fargo to regain the public�s trust through reforming business practices and making reparations to those affected by the illegal practices.

Local government operations have also grown skeptical of doing business with the bank. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority did not grant Wells Fargo pre-authorization status for underwriting bonds but instead opted to review its business practices before recommending it to the board.

Many eyes will be on Sloan as he handles the new parameters set forth by various governments. Meanwhile, Stumpf is facing some trouble of his own. The former CEO and chairman was found to have sold $61 million worth of Wells Fargo stock a month before regulators announced that the bank had been fined $185 million for its illegal practices.

As a result, Stumpf walked away with roughly $26 million in profit. While he may have been laughing all the way from the bank, his action did sound alarms for regulators who expressed concerns of insider trading.  source

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