The fake bank accounts created by Wells Fargo bank will have cost him dearly. The U.S. Department of Justice fined the Californian bank $ 3 billion for opening millions of bank accounts on behalf of clients from 2002 to 2016, without warning them. " Wells Fargo has admitted having collected millions of dollars in commissions, costs and interest to which it was not entitled (...) and having illegally misused personal and sensitive customer information, including their identifiers ", specifies the department of Justice in a press release. Five hundred million dollars, out of this 3 billion fine, will be paid back to customers injured by Wells Fargo.
The fourth-largest bank in the United States should have no problem settling the bill. It has already provisioned, in June, $ 3.9 billion to meet this deadline. This $ 3 billion fine is in addition to penalties already paid in the past, which total $ 4 billion.
The fictitious accounts scandal, as well as other illegal business practices, have especially heavily damaged the bank's reputation, and cost their jobs to two successive CEOs. In addition to opening accounts without authorization, Wells Fargo forced 600,000 customers to take out unnecessary car insurance. And she wrongly seized the property of some 400 owners, following a computer error ...
