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Violation Tracker Individual Record

Company: Wells Fargo & Company
Current Parent Company: Wells Fargo
Penalty: $3,000,000,000
Year: 2020
Date: February 21, 2020
Offense Group: competition-related offenses
Primary Offense: fraud
Secondary Offense: banking violation
Mega-Scandal: Bogus Bank Accounts
Violation Description: Wells Fargo & Company and its subsidiary, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., entered into a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay $3 billion to resolve their potential criminal and civil liability stemming from a practice between 2002 and 2016 of pressuring employees to meet unrealistic sales goals that led thousands of employees to provide millions of accounts or products to customers under false pretenses or without consent, often by creating false records or misusing customers' identities. The settlement also resolved an investigation being conducted by the SEC, which was to receive $500 million of the total to distribute to investors.
Level of Government: federal
Action Type: agency action
Agency: Justice Department Civil Division
Civil or Criminal Case: civil and criminal
Prosecution Agreement: deferred prosecution agreement
HQ Country of Current Parent: USA
HQ State of Current Parent: California
Ownership Structure of Current Parent: publicly traded
Major Industry of Current Parent: financial services
Specific Industry of Current Parent: banking
Source of Data: (click here)
Source Notes: If an online information source is not working, check the Violation Tracker Data Sources page for an updated link.
Current parent company note: Parent-subsidiary relationship is current as of the most recent revision listed in the Update Log.