Banking, finance, and taxes

Bernie Sanders Asks If Wells Fargo Incident Has Triggered Criminal Referrals to Justice Department

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: September 19, 2016 6:32 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 3:24 am

Perhaps another nail in the coffin of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) CEO John Stumpf. Bernie Sanders, former presidential candidate and United States Senator from Vermont wants to know if the federal agencies involved in the bank’s scandal have made referrals of material to the Justice Department.

Comments from the Sen Sanders website about a letter to Richard Cordray the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Thomas Curry, Comptroller of the Currency:

“Your agencies recently fined Wells Fargo $100 million, and $35 million, respectively, for illegally opening up deposit accounts and taking out credit cards for customers without their knowledge or consent. Have your agencies made any criminal referrals to the Department of Justice regarding this matter?”

“Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said Sept. 8 in a release about the fine. “Because of the severity of these violations, Wells Fargo is paying the largest penalty the CFPB has ever imposed. Today’s action should serve notice to the entire industry that financial incentive programs, if not monitored carefully, carry serious risks that can have serious legal consequences.”

This ups that stakes for Stumpf’s House and Senate testimony, and his attempt, likely to fail now, to keep his job.