Wells Fargo Increases Fake-Account Estimate 67% to 3.5 Million

[Stuart G]

Source: Bloomberg News

Wells Fargo & Co. said employees created two-thirds more bogus accounts than initially thought, a sign the bank is still struggling to move past a scandal that sparked record fines and congressional investigations.

An outside review found an additional 1.4 million potentially unauthorized deposit and credit-card accounts opened when the bank was encouraging employees to sell multiple products to retail customers, bringing the total to about 3.5 million, according to a statement Thursday from the San Francisco-based firm. The revised estimate covers January 2009 to September 2016, almost twice as long as the period examined in the initial review.

The disclosure of even more fraudulent accounts threatens to catapult Wells Fargo back into the political crosshairs just as Congress returns Sept. 5 from its summer recess. The scandal came to light almost a year ago after regulators slapped Wells Fargo with fines of $185 million over its sales practices, prompting congressional hearings and resulting in the bank naming new leaders, clawing back executives’ pay and beginning an overhaul of its retail division.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-31/wells-fargo-increases-fake-account-estimate-67-to-3-5-million

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This bank cheated people. Stole money. Forced people to have accounts, and pay fees that were false and bogus..
They are crooks . This bank set up 3.5 million accounts, totally unauthorized..

If you know anyone who has an account there, ask them to take their money out, and put it in some other bank

[mitch96]

1. How can you tell you have had a fake account set up in your name?

Will it show up in your account summary?
m

[Stuart G]

2. I don't know how they did it...

Some people received notices for extra fees associated with an account that those people did not know about..
I think, not sure, don't quote me, cause I don't know.. that the company deducted money from accounts without the account holders knowledge or approval.

[DK504]

3. Who is it that argues against Glass-Steagall?

Oh yeah, all of Wall St., all the Banking Industries and all investment companies. Those that are shredding the economical world and the Congress will do nothing, yet again.

What will they get in punishment? Not even a slap on the wrist, maybe a harsh word, but they will not suffer in any way shape or form.

[mitch96]

6. "What will they get in punishment? Not even a slap on the wrist"

After the ENRON scandal when some corporate heads went to JAIL they now just get fines... Who went to jail for the 2006-2008 crash???? Yup, no one... Just a million dollar fine here or there.. To them it's just the cost of doing business.... like bribes... ugh.. Wall Street bought legislators to reduce their exposure to the ramifications of their misdeeds....
m

[customerserviceguy]

7. I'm hoping

that people will have long memories about this criminal company. I've never, ever had an account of any kind with them, so I can't punish them by quitting them, but I do a lot of surveys, and no matter how little I think of most of the "too big to fail" banks, I always make sure I rate them the second from the bottom rating, and that Wells Fargo is always the rock bottom. I hope that gets communicated to these fraudsters.

I see a lot of monuments to Wells Fargo in various cities, their name is on a big building in Jacksonville, FL that I saw while driving through that town yesterday. Maybe some of the protest directed at Confederate statues needs to be focused on anything with that infamous name. When their remaining suckers, er, customers start to get embarrassed to have them as a bank, they'll finally slink back into the ooze they emerged from.

[HopeAgain]

4. Has anyone been criminally charged yet?

Or do bankers have secret immunity??

[Stuart G]

5. I don't think anyone has been criminally charged..

..Executives have resigned or been "removed". Board members have resigned, but I do not know if any of the executives, or anyone for that matter has been criminally charged. (I don't think so, and I have been following this story since it broke last year) Each time the bank releases more information, it turns out that it cheated hundreds of thousands more people.

[hatrack]

8. Kill this company. Revoke the charter, sell the parts, jail the executives responsible.

Let's see, 3.5 million fraudulent accounts and a fine of (Ouch! Stop! Hurts!) $185 million equals a whopping $52.86 fine per phony, money-milking, bullshit fraudulent account.

Kill. This. Company.

[ProfessorPlum]

10. agreed

[ProfessorPlum]

9. "a sign the bank is still struggling to move past a scandal"

that's some great reporting right there.

Yes, the poor bank. Struggling mightily to move past a scandal.

How might this have been written differently?

"A sign it was more corrupt and full of thieves and shit than anyone imagined"

"A sign that the bank wasn't punished nearly enough for its theft"

"A sign that every executive should be wearing an orange jumpsuit"

[not fooled]

11. No only

do they not go to jail, they get made Treasury Secretary. Not from Wells Fargo, but another example of a crook going unpunished for fraudulent activities (related to foreclosures in munchkin's case). And they get to buy trophy wives with the proceeds.