Wells Fargo is the third largest US bank and has long had quite the reputation in the finance industry. Recently, however, Wells Fargo admitted to scamming thousands of their consumers for roughly 15 years and must also pay all 50 individual states directly for their misdeeds. The original lawsuit was filed in September of 2016 by shareholders against the company.
The lawsuit was specifically for Wells Fargo employees unjustly creating fake bank accounts and credit lines using their customers names and other private information. Those employees defended themselves by stating that they only committed these actions in order to fulfill a quota mandated by the company which included a quota to fulfill new account registrations. Employees believed that they would lose their jobs if they did not reach the quota. This has been going on since 2002-2017 according to evidence from the lawsuit.
Wells Fargo to Pay States About $575 Million to Settle Customer Harm Claims; Latest settlement covers retail sales practices and auto-loan, mortgage charges https://t.co/xrY4jaAXy5 pic.twitter.com/xKveGD6eKD— Barry Ritholtz (@ritholtz) December 28, 2018
John G. Stumpf, the former CEO of Wells Fargo, stepped down in 2016 after news broke out of the companies fraud. Till this day Wells Fargo executives face significantly more court appearances in the future, as liabilities from these lawsuits expand, Wells Fargo already has reached over $2 Billion dollars in court losses.
From when news began breaking out on September 19th, 2016 about the fraud, Wells Fargo stocks were valued roughly at $43.21. Today, Wells Fargo stocks increased by almost 6% and they currently sit at $45.78, respectively. Wells Fargo has also created multiple programs as acts of restitution for anyone negatively affected by these account creations. The first acknowledgement of this fraud came sometime in 2015, prior to the lawsuit in 2016.
