Wells Fargo Bogus-Account Scandal Said to Draw U.S. Probe

Federal prosecutors are investigating Wells Fargo & Co. in connection with the bank’s sales practices after it agreed to pay $185 million in fines for opening more than 2 million unauthorized accounts, according to a person familiar with the Justice Department investigation.

U.S. attorneys in New York and San Francisco have opened criminal inquiries, the person said, adding that under Justice Department guidelines, investigators will look into both potential corporate and individual wrongdoing.

Wells Fargo on Sept. 8 settled allegations that it opened credit-card and deposit accounts for customers without their approval, while not admitting or denying wrongdoing. Wells Fargo fired 5,300 workers over the matter and said it would eliminate sales goals regulators linked to its practice of cross-selling products. Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf also sent an e-mail to customers on Wednesday apologizing for the actions.

Federal Regulators

Included in the $185 million settlement, Wells Fargo will pay a record $100 million fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and $35 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the two federal regulators that investigated the bank. The amount also includes $50 million to the Los Angeles city attorney in civil penalties, the largest that agency says it has ever received.

Abraham Simmons, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in San Francisco declined to comment on the probe, while James Margolin, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in New York, didn’t immediately respond to a call seeking comment.

The Justice Department investigation was reported earlier Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors issued a subpoena for documents and other materials, according to the newspaper.

Mark Folk, a spokesman for the San Francisco-based bank, declined to comment.

Wells Fargo fell 0.9 percent to close at $46.52 in New York, erasing earlier gains. The stock has slumped 6.5 percent since the settlement was announced, the worst performance in the 24-company KBW Bank Index.

Following criticisms that U.S. authorities had failed to hold bankers to account in the aftermath of the financial crisis, the Justice Department last September issued a policy requiring all civil and criminal cases begin and end with a focus on individual accountability.

Reduced Penalties

Under the policy, laid out in a memo by top department official Sally Quillian Yates, companies facing criminal investigations would have to turn over information about any responsible individuals in order to win reduced penalties.

Wells Fargo hired a consulting firm within the last year to review the bank’s data on all deposit and credit-card accounts opened since 2011, Chief Financial Officer John Shrewsberry said this week at an investor conference in New York.

The consultant found that 1.5 million deposit accounts and 565,000 credit-card accounts may not have been authorized by customers, according to a presentation Shrewsberry gave at the conference. He said the consultant found that 115,000 of the unauthorized accounts had been charged fees. The bank has refunded $2.6 million to affected customers, he said.

— With assistance by Pamela A Maclean, Christian Berthelsen, and Joel Rosenblatt