Wells Fargo Investor Seeks Files in Probe Over Fake Interviews for Diverse Candidates
In 2020, the San Francisco-based bank paid $3 billion to resolve criminal and civil claims over allegations employees opened millions of savings and checking accounts in the names of actual customers, without their knowledge, to get bonuses. The bank’s former CEO — John Stumpf – was fined $17.5 million for his role in the scandal.
The pension fund’s complaint over the job interviews is a so-called books and records action, demanding documents that can be used as fodder for suits against Wells Fargo executives or directors for breaching their duties to investors.
In 2020, Wells Fargo officials launched an effort to beef up diversity in hiring practices after paying about $8 million to resolve US Labor Department claims it discriminated against more than 30,000 black job applicants for positions in banking, sales and other roles.
But Wells Fargo employees tipped off federal prosecutors last year that managers in the bank’s wealth-advisory units were conducting sham interviews to meet internal diversity mandates, according to the New York Times.
The case is Pompano Beach General Employees Retirement System v. Wells Fargo & Co., 2023-0656, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).
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