Wells Fargo scandals and sanctions entanglements began in 2016. Here’s the list

For Wells Fargo, nearly a decade’s worth of scandals, federal regulatory action and a $1.95 trillion asset cap limiting the bank’s growth had its roots in 2016.

That’s the year that the bank’s fake sales accounts scandal was discovered. To meet excessive sales goals, thousands of Wells Fargo’s Community Bank employees opened millions of unauthorized or fraudulent accounts and other financial products from 2002 to 2016. Their customers had never asked for those accounts.

Since then, regulators identified a number of additional problems with how the bank handled mortgages, auto loans and consumer deposit accounts:

▪ In 2018, Wells Fargo was charged a combined $1 billion from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for improper mortgage and auto-lending practices that harmed consumers.

▪ In 2020, the bank agreed to pay a $3 billion fine to federal prosecutors and the SEC over its practices.

Also that year, 11 former Wells Fargo senior executives were charged by the comptroller’s office. Eight settled, paying over $43 million in civil penalties, including former CEO John Stumpf who was ordered to pay $17.5 million.

▪ In 2022, CFPB ordered Wells Fargo Bank to pay a $1.7 billion fine and more than $2 billion for repeated auto lending, mortgage and account deposit practices that harmed over 16 million customers. Bank customers were illegally assessed fees and interest charges on auto and mortgage loans, had their cars wrongly repossessed, and had payments to auto and mortgage loans misapplied by the bank, the 2022 CFPB order said.

▪ In May 2023, Wells Fargo was settling a class-action lawsuit from shareholders for $1 billion over claims the bank misled them about how it was complying with regulators in the aftermath of its fake sales scandal.

▪ In September 2023, Carrie Tolstedt, the only Wells Fargo leader criminally charged in the scandal, was sentenced to three years’ probation, including six months of home confinement, for her role in misleading investors.

▪ In December, the CFPB sued Wells Fargo for failing to stop “widespread” Zelle fraud. Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase are also named in the lawsuit. Customers have lost more than $870 million during the Zelle network’s seven-year existence because of the actions, according to the consumer agency. But under President Donald Trump, the CFPB dropped the suit in March.

▪ Also last December, three former executives were ordered to pay more than $18 million. Claudia Russ Anderson, the former community bank group risk officer, was ordered Tuesday to pay $10 million; David Julian, former chief auditor, was ordered to pay $7 million; and Paul McLinko, former executive audit director, was ordered to pay $1.5 million.

This story was originally published June 3, 2025 at 6:43 PM with the headline "Wells Fargo scandals and sanctions entanglements began in 2016. Here’s the list."