SAN FRANCISCO–Wells Fargo has received subpoenas from three different U.S. attorneys’ offices in the last week as the investigation grows into how more than 5,000 of its employees could be involved in a scheme that created more than one-million bogus customer accounts.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and San Francisco sent the subpoenas seeking information on the misconduct, according to two people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to discuss it. Prosecutors in North Carolina are also investigating, according to the New York Times.
As CUToday.info reported here, the bank has been fined $185 million overall for practices that involved creating accounts that customers never requested.
Bank employees have reported they felt pressured to make aggressive cross-sales goals. Over a five-year period some 5,300 employees have been fired for their involvement in the scheme.
The New York Times reported that the “subpoenas from federal prosecutors raise the prospect that the investigation, while in its early stages, could lead to criminal charges for the bank or its employees. Another option is for prosecutors to handle the investigation as a civil fraud matter, which would require a lower burden of proof. At least one of the subpoenas indicated that prosecutors were considering that route, one of the people briefed on the matter said.”