More Wells Fargo customers may be affected by sales scandal: filing

Oh, oh!!

More Wells Fargo & Co customers may have been affected by a scandal over phony accounts than previously believed, the third-largest U.S. lender said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

Wells Fargo had previously estimated that up to 2.1 million customers may have had checking and credit-card accounts opened in their names without their permission over a period of several years.

As part of an expanded review there could be “an increase in the identified number of potentially impacted customers,” Wells said.

The search for unauthorized accounts now covers a broader time frame, from 2009 to September 2016. An ongoing analysis of customer data may also be turning up more affected customers, according to Wells’ annual 10-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Wells Fargo Warns a Deeper Review May Uncover More Bogus Accounts

• Also says banks used its tech for trade in sanctioned nations
• It alerted authorities and is cooperating with DOJ inquiry

Wells Fargo & Co., seeking to resolve a bogus-account scandal that shook the company last year, warned investors it may find more victims. Separately, it said U.S. authorities are examining whether other firms abused its technology to violate international sanctions.

The bank has expanded a review into how employees pitched accounts and other products to customers, looking at a broader time frame, and is now refining its methodology to identify any improper sales, the company said in an annual regulatory filing. “This work could lead to, among other things, an increase in the identified number of potentially impacted customers,” it said.

In the other matter, Wells Fargo said it discovered overseas banks were using its software tools to help finance trade with countries and entities subject to U.S. sanctions. Wells Fargo said it alerted the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and is cooperating with a Justice Department inquiry. It doesn’t appear that any of the transactions flowed through accounts at the bank, it said in the filing.

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Petition asks city of Decatur to stop doing business with Wells Fargo

An online petition is asking the city to discontinue its business relationship with Wells Fargo bank.

One of the concerns cited by petition organizers is Wells Fargo’s role in financing the Dakota Access Pipeline, a controversial oil pipeline project that is opposed by many Native Americans.

“Wells Fargo is the City of Decatur’s primary bank,” the petitions says. “Our property, business and other taxes and the City’s funds are deposited with Wells Fargo. According to Investopedia, deposits are the primary source of loanable funds for almost every bank. Wells Fargo loans our money to fund fossil fuel infrastructure projects, such the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). We do not want our tax dollars to support the DAPL project.”

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Protesters urge Sammamish City Council to divest from Wells Fargo

Protesters from Sammamish and the greater Seattle area flooded Sammamish City Hall on Tuesday urging City Council members to divest the city’s money from its banker, Wells Fargo, due to the bank investing in the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Roughly 30 protesters were in attendance, with nine addressing the council over the course of a half hour. While individual protesters spoke, those in the audience held up signs that read “Divest,” “Water is life” and “No DAPL.”

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City of Alameda moves to divest from Wells Fargo

ALAMEDA — The city of Alameda has taken the first steps toward divesting more than $36 million from its accounts at Wells Fargo over the bank’s involvement with the Dakota Access pipeline and the bank’s history of controversial practices.

The City Council voted unanimously early Wednesday morning to immediately refrain from investing in the bank’s securities and told city officials to begin the process of securing a new bank.

Along with the Dakota Access pipeline, the council’s actions are a response to last year’s scandal in which regulators found that the San Francisco-based bank set up accounts for consumers without their knowledge to meet sales goals, which led to $185 million in fines and the firing of at least 5,300 employees.

“If there is bad behavior and we do nothing about it, then we are passively condoning it,” said Vice Mayor Malia Vella, who, along with Councilman Jim Oddie, put the city’s involvement with Wells Fargo on the council’s agenda.

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Supreme Court breathes new life into whistleblower case against Wells Fargo

With a ruling Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court revived a long-running whistleblower lawsuit that accused Wachovia’s investment bank of violating accounting rules and skirting internal controls to pursue short-term profits.

The Supreme Court vacated a judgment in August 2016 by the U.S. Appeals Court for the Second Circuit that had affirmed a lower court’s decision to dismiss the case filed by two whistleblowers, including one who had worked in Charlotte.

The high court ordered the appeals court to give the case further consideration in light of a June 2016 Supreme Court ruling that interpreted an aspect of the federal whistleblower law called the U.S. False Claims Act.

“It has obviously breathed new life into our case, which is very important for everyone involved,” said Joel Androphy, a Houston-based attorney representing the plaintiffs. “This has been a very long road.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/banking/article134045579.html#storylink=cpy

Wells Fargo Fires Managers, Denies Bonuses in Account Probe

• Bank doesn’t specify what prompted four managers’ termination
• Board may yet release more information, person familiar says

Wells Fargo & Co. fired the head of its consumer credit-card business and three other senior managers as the bank’s board examines how abusive sales practices spread through branches before spiraling into a national scandal last year.

Shelley Freeman, the former Los Angeles regional president who went on to run consumer-credit solutions, was terminated, along with Arizona lead regional president Pam Conboy, former community bank risk chief Claudia Russ Anderson and Matthew Raphaelson, 55, who led community bank strategy and initiatives. The bank announced the moves in a statementTuesday, saying the four won’t get bonuses for 2016 and will forfeit unvested equity awards and outstanding options.

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In solidarity with Standing Rock, Santa Monica, CA moves forward to cut ties with Wells Fargo

In a show of support to activists protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline, the Santa Monica City Council moved forward with plans to end the City’s banking relationship with Wells Fargo bank.

The City currently has $1 billion in annual transactions with the bank, including deposits and payments, according to spokeswoman Constance Farrell. Santa Monica’s investment portfolio includes $4.6 million in Wells Fargo bonds.

During a midnight discussion and a lengthy public comment period, Mayor Ted Winterer reminded supporters of the divestment that applause is forbidden at City Council meetings, so when five out of seven members voted to move forward with the motion a wave of jazz hands shot up into the air – a vigorous sign of approval from attendees who pushed for the motion into the early morning hours.

“I’ve been to Standing Rock twice. I was on the frontline every time. It made me very angry to see my people treated in such a manner,” said Walter Ruiz, also known as Graywolf. Ruiz was one of 25 activists who spoke to support cutting ties with Wells Fargo. He runs the Chumash Indian Museum in Thousand Oaks.

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Wells Fargo to oppose nuns on review resolution: document

The board of Wells Fargo & Co plans to oppose a resolution filed by shareholder activists led by the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia seeking a review of the root causes of the bank’s unauthorized accounts scandal, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.

The draft dated Feb. 10 states the board’s position on the measure, to be included in its forthcoming proxy for this year’s springtime shareholder meeting, is that because the bank has its own investigation and reforms under way, the concerns raised by the proposal are being addressed.

According to the document, “our Board and our Company believe we are already providing through our current and anticipated future disclosures…the information requested by this proposal.”

An ongoing disagreement over the resolution could complicate the bank’s drive to regain shareholder confidence.

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Wells Fargo whistle-blower finds vindication — 14 years later

“I’ve been vindicated,” Ian Minto quietly told himself.

It was late September last year. Minto had just heard that then-CEO Wells Fargo John Stumpf stood in front of a Senate panel and apologized for a major scandal that rocked the San Francisco bank. Employees had created up to two million fraudulent accounts in the names of real consumers. Senator after senator blasted Stumpf, many expressing disbelief that Wells Fargo could do such a thing.

If only they had met Minto 15 years ago.

In 2002, Minto was an assistant branch manager at Wells Fargo branch in San Rafael when he started to notice troubling behavior: Some of his employees were signing up unusually large numbers of customers. One particular banker recruited more than two dozen customers in a single day.

Suspicious, Minto discovered the banker listed the same address for those 25 people. So he went to the address. It was a cemetery.

As it turns out, employees were creating fraudulent checking and credit-card accounts so they could hit aggressive sales goals and earn more money.

“You’re not just stealing from the customer, you’re stealing from the shareholders,” Minto told me.

Minto said he reported the fraud to his supervisor, as the bank had taught him.

“He said ‘Don’t worry about it,’” Minto told me. “That’s about as far as it went.”

Not quite. A few months later, the bank fired him for not meeting sales goals. So Minto filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Wells Fargo. But he lacked the money to pursue the case and ended up settling out of court.

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