Senator Elizabeth Warren just said what we were all thinking about the recent Wells Fargo scandal.
Speaking directly to Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, Senator Warren called the situation a “scam” and accused him of making millions of dollars off of it. Warren also passionately argued, “You should resign…and you should be criminally investigated.” Stumpf was also accused of “gutless leadership.”
.@SenWarren #WellsFargo CEO: “You should resign. You should give back the money that you took…” pic.twitter.com/aPZViWGJIN
— CSPAN (@cspan) September 20, 2016
Other Senators questioned the executive over the scandal, asking him if he regards the case as one of fraud, what the situation is in regards to executive Carrie Tolstedt, who was head of the department responsible for the fraud and is retiring with $125 million later this year, and what the bank plans to do to help customers whose credit ratings have been affected by the fake accounts.
Wells Fargo is in trouble and is being forced to pay $185 million in penalties for the thousands of employees that opened false accounts in order to meet sales goals.
The bank fired 5,300 employees involved in the estimated 1.5 million unauthorized account openings. These accounts were opened and customers were charged without their approval.
Additionally, Wells Fargo employees submitted 565,443 credit card applications on the customers’ behalf without their knowledge or consent. Approved credit card accounts result in annual fees paid to the bank.
“We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request,” Wells Fargo said in a public statement.
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