When John Stumpf (previously) was CEO of Wells Fargo, he oversaw a string of scandals including literally millions of acts of bank fraud, and still managed to walk out of the business with millions in bonuses and no criminal prosecutions.
He remains a multi-multi-multi-millionaire, but will have to surrender $17.5m in fines for his role in the scandals and is barred for life from working in banking. Many of his accomplices from Wells Fargo’s C-suite are facing their own fines and restrictions on future involvement in the industry.
Much of the activity occurred because employees faced “unreasonable pressure” to achieve sales goals, leading to widespread instances of unethical and illegal behavior, the OCC alleged Thursday in legal documents.Stumpf, the agency said, “was frequently informed by leaders” of the company’s Community Bank division of the behavior but was told it was isolated and not systemic. He notably did not hold the head of the Community Bank division, Carrie Tolstedt, accountable and failed to take other actions “to prevent the Bank from recklessly engaging in unsafe or unsound practices,” the OCC alleged.
Stumpf earlier already agreed to relinquish about $70 million in compensation, including stock awards, because of the scandal.
Ex-Wells Fargo CEO banned from banking, must pay $17.5M fine for role in fake-accounts scandal [Nathan Bomey/USA Today]