Senators call for criminal investigation of Wells Fargo
WASHINGTON — Fourteen senators are calling on the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation of Wells Fargo executives after revelations that bank employees opened millions of fake bank and credit card accounts.
A bank teller who steals bills from a cash drawer is likely to face charges, the senators said in a statement, but ‘‘an executive who oversees a massive fraud that implicates thousands of bank employees and costs customers millions of dollars can walk away with a hefty retirement package and millions in the bank.’’
House and Senate hearings last month with Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf ‘‘raised serious questions’’ that point to possible wrongdoing by Stumpf and other high-ranking executive, said the senators, all but one of them Democrats.
US and California regulators have fined San Francisco-based Wells Fargo $185 million, saying bank employees trying to meet aggressive sales targets opened up to 2 million fake deposit and credit card accounts in customers’ names. Regulators said employees issued and activated debit cards and signed people up for online banking without permission. The abuses are said to have gone on for years, unchecked by senior management.
Read more: http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/10/06/senators-call-for-criminal-investigation-wells-fargo/xWAI8gCkvPIY98ocvDl28I/story.html
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