Former Wells Fargo execs ordered to pay $18.5M over fake accounts scandal – By Breck Dumas (FOX Business) / Dec 9, 2022
Attorneys for the three ex-Wells Fargo bankers say they plan to fight decision
Three former Wells Fargo executives face hefty fines over the mega-bank’s fake accounts scandal after a judge recommended they be forced to pay $18.5 million in collective penalties for failing to stop the years-long scheme.
Federal Administrative Law Judge Christopher McNeil found in a report issued this week that former Wells Community Bank Group risk officer Claudia Russ Anderson, former chief auditor David Julian and former executive auditor director Paul McLinko were all culpable and that their “conduct constituted unsafe or unsound practice and violated the fiduciary duties” owed to the bank. He ordered them to pay civil penalties of $10 million, $7 million and $1.5 million, respectively.
McNeil made the recommendation to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which will make the final determination. According to American Banker, which first reported the proposed penalties, attorneys for the former executives claim their clients did nothing wrong and plan to appeal the ruling.
The action is the latest move by regulators to impose penalties on individual former Wells Fargo employees for their alleged involvement in – or failure to end – the scheme that grew rampant within the organization when unrealistic sales goals implemented by the bank led to millions of fake accounts being opened without customers’ knowledge and under false pretenses.
CONTINUE > https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/former-wells-fargo-execs-ordered-pay-18-5m-fake-accounts-scandal
