The Infuriating Reason Wells Fargo Got Away With Its Massive Scam For So Long

christiefan915

christiefan915

Catalyst
Contributor
How did Wells Fargo get away with ripping off its banking customers for so long? The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and the City of Los Angeles recently fined Wells Fargo $185 million for five years of misbehavior, but now congressional Republicans are asking why this didn’t happen faster.

Their bewilderment, however, is in itself rather bewildering, if not downright disingenuous. Not only has the GOP consistently opposed the very existence of the CFPB, but Republicans have more recently registered strong opposition to specific new rules proposed by the agency that would have helped bring Wells Fargo’s misconduct into the open sooner.

“If there were ever a textbook case where consumers needed protection this was it,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said in his opening remarks Tuesday. Wells Fargo customers were surprised to get debit cards in the mail, rack up fees on accounts that they didn’t know existed, get calls from collection agencies over unpaid fees and see their credit ratings plummet...

Yet Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped answer that very question at the hearing: Wells Fargo customers weren’t allowed to join together and file class action lawsuits against the bank. Those kinds of suits would’ve more quickly brought justice to thousands. But Wells Fargo, like all big banks, has strict provisions in place to protect itself from ever being subjected to these kinds of lawsuits ― or any kind of public suit filed by a customer.

“If we had class actions on this back in 2010, 2009, 2008, then the problem never would have gotten so out of hand,” said Warren, who came up with the idea for the CFPB in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...blicans_us_57e4192be4b0e80b1ba0d583?section=&
 
Did you see their asshole CEO being grilled by the Senate Finance committee? Shelby ripped him a new one almost as savagely as Warren did and that no account prick sat their with a smug, arrogant look of "I'm not touchable".

They need to prosecute his ass. The people of this nation need to raise hell till some of these high rent criminals start going to prison. 2008 did nothing to change these cocksuckers. They came out of that thinking they are unfucking touchable. That they are above the law.
 
So the Indian Princess admits that the consumer protection board was a useless burocracy that offered no consumer protection AND has an unsubstantiated claim of mysterious prohibitions.
You can't make this stuff up.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Did you see their asshole CEO being grilled by the Senate Finance committee? Shelby ripped him a new one almost as savagely as Warren did and that no account prick sat their with a smug, arrogant look of "I'm not touchable".

They need to prosecute his ass. The people of this nation need to raise hell till some of these high rent criminals start going to prison. 2008 did nothing to change these cocksuckers. They came out of that thinking they are unfucking touchable. That they are above the law.
Click to expand...

I heard the grilling by Warren on NPR, loved it. That stumble bum CEO could not give a straight answer.
 
Celticguy said:
So the Indian Princess admits that the consumer protection board was a useless burocracy that offered no consumer protection AND has an unsubstantiated claim of mysterious prohibitions.
You can't make this stuff up.
Click to expand...

Uh, no. The bank offered no consumer protection. "Wells Fargo, like all big banks, has strict provisions in place to protect itself from ever being subjected to these kinds of lawsuits ― or any kind of public suit filed by a customer. Indeed, Wells Fargo customers agree they won’t sue the bank when they sign up for their accounts."

Here's what Warren said toward the end of her allotted time to question Stumpf:

Here's what really gets me about this, Mr. Stumpf. If one of your tellers took a handful of $20 bills out of the crash drawer, they'd probably be looking at criminal charges for theft. They could end up in prison. "But you squeezed your employees to the breaking point so they would cheat customers and you could drive up the value of your stock and put hundreds of millions of dollars in your own pocket.

"And when it all blew up, you kept your job, you kept your multi-multimillion dollar bonuses, and you went on television to blame thousands of $12-an-hour employees who were just trying to meet cross-sell quotas that made you rich.

"This is about accountability. You should resign. You should give back the money that you took while this scam was going on, and you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. This just isn't right."
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Did you see their asshole CEO being grilled by the Senate Finance committee? Shelby ripped him a new one almost as savagely as Warren did and that no account prick sat their with a smug, arrogant look of "I'm not touchable".

They need to prosecute his ass. The people of this nation need to raise hell till some of these high rent criminals start going to prison. 2008 did nothing to change these cocksuckers. They came out of that thinking they are unfucking touchable. That they are above the law.
Click to expand...

These people put unreasonable quotas on their employees, which naturally encourages misbehavior, and then are amazed when wrongdoing happens. It reminds me of the time Stalin put in place a quota for the amount of Kulaks ("wealthy peasants") that had to be rounded up in each district. Of course his officers always managed to find the appropriate number of Kulaks, usually by just picking out some random schmuck.
 
christiefan915 said:
How did Wells Fargo get away with ripping off its banking customers for so long? The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and the City of Los Angeles recently fined Wells Fargo $185 million for five years of misbehavior, but now congressional Republicans are asking why this didn’t happen faster.

Their bewilderment, however, is in itself rather bewildering, if not downright disingenuous. Not only has the GOP consistently opposed the very existence of the CFPB, but Republicans have more recently registered strong opposition to specific new rules proposed by the agency that would have helped bring Wells Fargo’s misconduct into the open sooner.

“If there were ever a textbook case where consumers needed protection this was it,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said in his opening remarks Tuesday. Wells Fargo customers were surprised to get debit cards in the mail, rack up fees on accounts that they didn’t know existed, get calls from collection agencies over unpaid fees and see their credit ratings plummet...

Yet Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) helped answer that very question at the hearing: Wells Fargo customers weren’t allowed to join together and file class action lawsuits against the bank. Those kinds of suits would’ve more quickly brought justice to thousands. But Wells Fargo, like all big banks, has strict provisions in place to protect itself from ever being subjected to these kinds of lawsuits ― or any kind of public suit filed by a customer.

“If we had class actions on this back in 2010, 2009, 2008, then the problem never would have gotten so out of hand,” said Warren, who came up with the idea for the CFPB in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...blicans_us_57e4192be4b0e80b1ba0d583?section=&
Click to expand...
I had some shares in Wells Fargo but sold them last year, bloody glad that I did!!

Sent from my Lenovo K50-t5 using Tapatalk
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Did you see their asshole CEO being grilled by the Senate Finance committee? Shelby ripped him a new one almost as savagely as Warren did and that no account prick sat their with a smug, arrogant look of "I'm not touchable".

They need to prosecute his ass. The people of this nation need to raise hell till some of these high rent criminals start going to prison. 2008 did nothing to change these cocksuckers. They came out of that thinking they are unfucking touchable. That they are above the law.
Click to expand...

Voltaire wrote in Candide about the execution of Admiral Byng: "Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres" Whilst hanging them from the yard arm might be a lttle harsh, a 5-10 stretch would concentrate minds wonderfully.
 
given the fact these complaints have been around for over a decade one wonders why people still have their accounts with them.......
 
christiefan915 said:
I heard the grilling by Warren on NPR, loved it. That stumble bum CEO could not give a straight answer.
Click to expand...
Oh you need to watch the video to see why both Republican Senator Shelby and Democrat Warren were furious with this guy.

He didn't care that these Senators were pissed. You could see it written on his face. He didn't give one flip want they thought.
 
Milagro said:
Voltaire wrote in Candide about the execution of Admiral Byng: "Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres" Whilst hanging them from the yard arm might be a lttle harsh, a 5-10 stretch would concentrate minds wonderfully.
Click to expand...
Indeed it would!
 
PostmodernProphet said:
given the fact these complaints have been around for over a decade one wonders why people still have their accounts with them.......
Click to expand...

A good question. I had an auto loan with them. They were bad about hidden charges and I paid my loan off early to avoid them and I decided I would not use them again but they did not pull any of these shenanigans on me.

I bet the do lose customers now. I bet there stock drops too.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
A good question. I had an auto loan with them. They were bad about hidden charges and I paid my loan off early to avoid them and I decided I would not use them again but they did not pull any of these shenanigans on me.

I bet the do lose customers now. I bet there stock drops too.
Click to expand...

I was representing two women who had a mortgage with them in foreclosure.....they were prohibited by law from communicating directly with them if represented by counsel.....I contacted them and informed them I was of counsel.......they sent me a letter every thirty days demanding that I tell them if I was still representing the couple......I would reply "yes, but the fact I have filed a law suit against you which is proceeding to trial should have been sufficient to inform you of that fact"......that went on for nearly three years while the case progressed......
 
PostmodernProphet said:
I was representing two women who had a mortgage with them in foreclosure.....they were prohibited by law from communicating directly with them if represented by counsel.....I contacted them and informed them I was of counsel.......they sent me a letter every thirty days demanding that I tell them if I was still representing the couple......I would reply "yes, but the fact I have filed a law suit against you which is proceeding to trial should have been sufficient to inform you of that fact"......that went on for nearly three years while the case progressed......
Click to expand...
Do you know what their purpose was for doing that? Harassment?
 
You know what's scary. Is how the stock market is reacting to this scandal. Wells Fargo was busted for acting reprehensibly and screwing it's customers while investors made hundreds of millions from that screwing. That is they profited from a scam.

The sentiment by investors seems to be...ho hum...another banking scandal. The stock has dropped $5 but this to will pass...is this a good time to buy?

There is no thinking about holding this bank and its senior management accountable for bilking it's customers. They simply don't give a damn. Their just concerned about how long will it take for this episode to pass and if it's a good time to buy.
 
Last edited:
I've banked with Wells for over 25 years. They got me with one of these accounts. B*tch was giving me the hard sell on an account and of course stupid male ego took over I didn't went to admit I didn't know what she was talking about so I accepted. Next thing I know I was getting big monthly charges.

Once I realized it I went back to the branch and changed it but in retrospect it's clear she was part of this program.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top