Wells Fargo has received subpoenas from three different United States attorneys’ offices in the last week, escalating an investigation into how thousands of bank employees came to secretly issue more than a million sham accounts without customers’ consent, the New York Times reported today. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan and San Francisco sent the subpoenas seeking information on the misconduct, and prosecutors in North Carolina are also investigating. Wells Fargo, one of the nation’s largest banks, with headquarters in San Francisco, recently settled civil charges with regulators and the city and county of Los Angeles last week. The settlement, in which the bank did not admit or deny wrongdoing, included $185 million in fines and a requirement that the bank hire an independent consultant to review its sales practices. 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. Read more.
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