This week, the city of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against Wells Fargo bank for opening up unwanted accounts for customers without their permission. The customer’s private information was used to open the accounts, and in some cases the accounts resulted in unwanted fees and damaged credit scores.
According to the lawsuit, employees at Wells Fargo participated in “unfair, unlawful and fraudulent conduct.”
One man who only wanted one Wells Fargo account, actually ended up with ten, and there are many others just like him.
The employees had quotas which required them to sell a certain number of accounts each day, which would create an incentive to fraudulently open accounts for existing customers.
In a statement responding to the lawsuit, Wells Fargo executives said that, “Wells Fargo’s culture is focused on the best interests of its customers and creating a supportive, caring and ethical environment for our team members.”
On Tuesday, Los Angeles city attorney Mike Feuer said, “Consumers should be entitled to expect that major financial institutions will treat them fairly. Our lawsuit alleges that in Wells Fargo’s push for growth the bank often elevated profit over its customers’ legal rights.”
There has been no mention as to whether the money from this lawsuit will actually be transferred to the victims somehow, or if it will stay with the government of the city of Los Angeles.
John Vibes writes for True Activist and is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture and the drug war.
