Wells Fargo announced on Tuesday the firing of four senior employees after the 2016 banking scandal – the banking tycoon admitted that two million fake accounts were created using customer’s information without their consent.
Since the scandal became public, Wells Fargo has let go over 5,000 employees and the company’s CEO John Stumpf retired last October.
On Tuesday, Wells Fargo’s board of directors decided to fire four senior officials working within the company, according to USA Today. Some of the fired employees include the company’s Chief Risk Officer, Arizona Lead Regional President, Los Angele Regional President, and the head of community bank strategy and initiatives. The four senior officials will not receive their 2016 bonuses and will relinquish their stocks in the company.
After the scandal became public, details surrounding how Well Fargo operated came to light; For example, banking employees tried to report the illegal accounts a decade ago. As well as reports of employee mistreatment.
Currently, the Department of Justice is investigating Wells Fargo banking practices. Also, customers, employees, and the company’s shareholders have filed class-action lawsuits against the banking company.
What happened to Wells Fargo?
It all started after federal regulators discovered Wells Fargo employees created millions of unauthorized credit card and bank accounts without their customer’s knowledge since 2011. The phony accounts were then charged fees, which allowed for the company to increase revenue as well as boost their sales.
Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Finacial Protection Bureau said in a statement that the banking scandal allowed for Wells Fargo employees to open unauthorized accounts in order to “hit sales targets and receive bonuses.”
Not only did employees create fake accounts, Wells Fargo employees created illegitimate email addresses and PIN numbers in order to enroll customers to Wells Fargo’s online banking system. As a result, customers were charged insufficient funds or overdraft fees because there was not enough money in their accounts.
Also, Wells Fargo submitted over 500,000 credit card account applications without a customer’s knowledge or consent. Moreover, 14,000 of those accounts were charged over $400,000 in fees.