This thing taken at it's face value in terms of what happened is almost unbelievable. Scandals of a less significant nature take on the political overtones that cause one side to blow it off as insignificant while the other then can't bring on the prosecution that is warranted. This is way too big to ignore as it involves people being ripped off in staggering numbers.
From the what happened and what it is side of the equation it is a matter of being caught red handed in a huge fraud, the scale of it is unbelievable. Over five thousand employees have been fired for setting up fraudulent accounts in existing customer's names. No executives have been terminated or prosecuted, yet, but people in positions of authority should be going to jail and making restitution.
Not only is it bad enough that bank customers were intentionally defrauded, the reasons it was being done is criminal on a bigger scale that is going to affect investors in Wells Fargo, on the larger scale involved investment firms who have put large investment and retirement accounts in jeopardy. Investors would legitimately have a claim for losses when Wells Fargo stocks are down 50% and may go lower. This will be in the news for some time as federal prosecutors get involved.
Possibly one of the more egregious things here is that employees were told how to do this and what was expected. Those who sent memos to the effect that something illegal and unethical was going on were terminated. There are these employees who are stepping forward, and many have records that show that they had formally reported this before being terminated.
That a bank this large could possibly think that they could operate illegally on this scale is proof that banks think they can do anything and nothing will be done in terms of government oversight.
From the what happened and what it is side of the equation it is a matter of being caught red handed in a huge fraud, the scale of it is unbelievable. Over five thousand employees have been fired for setting up fraudulent accounts in existing customer's names. No executives have been terminated or prosecuted, yet, but people in positions of authority should be going to jail and making restitution.
Not only is it bad enough that bank customers were intentionally defrauded, the reasons it was being done is criminal on a bigger scale that is going to affect investors in Wells Fargo, on the larger scale involved investment firms who have put large investment and retirement accounts in jeopardy. Investors would legitimately have a claim for losses when Wells Fargo stocks are down 50% and may go lower. This will be in the news for some time as federal prosecutors get involved.
Possibly one of the more egregious things here is that employees were told how to do this and what was expected. Those who sent memos to the effect that something illegal and unethical was going on were terminated. There are these employees who are stepping forward, and many have records that show that they had formally reported this before being terminated.
That a bank this large could possibly think that they could operate illegally on this scale is proof that banks think they can do anything and nothing will be done in terms of government oversight.