In Their Own Words -- Payden

-- “From that point, I began drinking the hand sanitizer.” Angie Payden, Wells Fargo banker in Hudson, Wis., 2011 to 2014, discussing the toll working at Wells Fargo had on her personal health.  Click here for more.

September 27, 2016

The CFTC ordered Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. to pay a $400,000 penalty for inaccurate large trader reports for physical commodity swap positions.  CFTC

September 8, 2016

The CFPB fined Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. $100 million for the widespread illegal practice of secretly opening unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts.  Wells Fargo employees opened more than 200 million accounts that may not have been authorized.  In addition to the $100 million CFPB penalty, the largest the CFPB has ever imposed, Well Fargo will pay full restitution to the victims and two other penalties totaling $85 million.  CFPB

August 22, 2016

The CFPB sued Wells Fargo Bank for illegal private student loan servicing practices that increased costs and unfairly penalized certain student loan borrowers.  The consent order requires Wells Fargo to pay at least $410,000 to compensate consumers for illegal late fees, improve its consumer billing and student loan payment processing practices, and pay a $3.6 million civil penalty to the CFPB.  CFPB

March 28, 2016

California announced a $8,500,000 settlement with Wells Fargo Bank over privacy violations that included recording consumers’ phone calls without timely telling consumers they were being recorded, as required by California law. As part of the settlement, which is in the form of a stipulated judgment, Wells Fargo will pay civil penalties totaling $7,616,000 and will reimburse the prosecutors’ investigative costs of $384,000. In addition, Wells Fargo will contribute $500,000 to...

February 2, 2016

Fourteen municipal underwriting firms will pay civil penalties to settle charges under the SEC’s Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation (MCDC) initiative.  In all, 72 underwriters (comprising 96% of the municipal underwriting market) have been charged under the voluntary self-reporting program which targets material misstatements and omissions in municipal bond offering documents.  The settling firms and civil penalties paid by the settling firms are as follows: Barclays Capital Inc. ($500,000), Boenning &...

November 5, 2015

The Department of Justice’s US Trustee Program entered into a national settlement with Wells Fargo Bank requiring the bank to pay $81.6 million for failing to provide homeowners with legally required notices and thus the opportunity to challenge the accuracy of mortgage payment increases.  Wells Fargo acknowledged failing to timely file more than 100,000 payment change notices and perform more than 18,000 escrow analyses in cases involving nearly 68,000 accounts...

February 9, 2015

The DOJ announced that under its settlements with 5 of the nation’s largest mortgage servicers, 952 service members are eligible to receive over $123M for mortgage foreclosures that violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.  The statute generally prohibits non-judicial foreclosures against service members who are in military service or within the applicable post-service period.  The five mortgage servicers are JPMorgan Chase; Wells Fargo Bank and Wells Fargo & Co.; Citi...

Whistleblower News From The Inside — November 6, 2015

By the C|C Whistleblower Lawyer Team New York investigates Exxon Mobil for possible climate change lies -- "The New York attorney general has begun an investigation of Exxon Mobil to determine whether the company lied to the public about the risks of climate change or to investors about how such risks might hurt the oil business."  NYT SEC finds false tweets sent two stocks reeling in market manipulation -- The...

January 16, 2015

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Citi, and Wells Fargo Bank agreed to pay $2.7M million and undertake obligations to facilitate the repair of defective property titles, resolving claims they violated Massachusetts foreclosure law and the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act by illegally foreclosing upon Massachusetts residents’ homes when the banks lacked the legal authority to do so. MA