Former Wells Fargo Executive Avoids Prison in Sham Accounts Scandal

A former prime Wells Fargo govt averted jail time for her position within the financial institution’s sham accounts scandal, after a federal choose on Friday as a substitute sentenced her to 6 months of dwelling confinement and three years of probation. She was additionally ordered to pay a $100,000 wonderful and carry out 120 hours of neighborhood service.

The former govt, Carrie L. Tolstedt, who was head of retail banking at Wells Fargo, was the one high-ranking govt on the financial institution to be criminally charged for its misdeeds. She pleaded responsible this 12 months to 1 legal cost of obstructing a financial institution examination.

Prosecutors had sought a 12-month jail sentence, saying in a authorized submitting that imprisoning Ms. Tolstedt, 63, could be a “general deterrence to other executives who might find themselves tempted to skirt the truth.”

Ms. Tolstedt’s attorneys had pressed for probation, citing comparable sentences in different circumstances and invoking Ms. Tolstedt’s “lifelong charitable works.” Both the prosecution and the protection additionally cited Ms. Tolstedt’s well being points, the small print of which had been redacted from the general public variations of authorized filings, as an element favoring leniency.

Ms. Tolstedt ran Wells Fargo’s retail branches through the years that the financial institution opened what could have been thousands and thousands of fraudulent financial institution accounts, a scandal that burst into public view in 2016 and toppled two successive chief executives.

Although pretty few prospects have been immediately harmed by the financial institution’s actions — its toll fell extra closely on staff, who confronted intense stress to interrupt the regulation or threat being fired — the revelation targeted regulators’ consideration on Wells and led to the invention of extra misdeeds. The financial institution has paid billions of {dollars} in fines, together with a $3.7 billion penalty levied final 12 months for acts together with wrongfully repossessing some debtors’ vehicles and houses and charging overdraft charges even when prospects had sufficient cash to cowl their purchases.

Ms. Tolstedt had constantly denied any wrongdoing within the sham accounts problem. She had retired from the financial institution shortly earlier than its actions turned public, and she or he was later retroactively fired for trigger.

Ms. Tolstedt “fully accepts responsibility for her offense, and recognizes it was wrong,” her attorneys wrote in a pre-sentencing submitting. In March, she agreed to pay $17 million to settle civil prices introduced in opposition to her by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Ms. Tolstedt was sentenced by Judge Josephine Staton, in Los Angeles. A spokesman for the U.S. legal professional for the central district of California declined to touch upon the sentence. Ms. Tolstedt’s lawyer additionally declined to remark.

Wells Fargo continues to be haunted by the implications of its succession of scandals. Since 2018, it has operated beneath a draconian asset-cap restriction imposed by the Federal Reserve that sharply limits its development. That restriction “is a statement of the reality that we still have more work to do,” Charles Scharf, the San Francisco-based financial institution’s chief govt, informed analysts on a name in July. He added, “It’s critical that we continue on our road to complete that work.”