Wells Fargo has been slapped with yet another hefty fine, this time to the tune of $1 billion, adding to the $3.7 billion fine they were hit with in December 2022. Unfortunately, this news has been largely overshadowed by the recent surge of the stock market, and the mainstream media has been silent about this latest scandal.
It is particularly egregious considering that their scamming began all the way back in 2016, and they have had nearly a decade to get away with their actions. The $4.7 billion fine is a drop in the bucket compared to the profits they have likely made from the scam. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the $10 billion in customer funds lost from FTX is far less than what Wells Fargo has taken from its victims.
It is not just Wells Fargo that is caught in a cycle of violations. Most major banks are caught in 3 – 7 violations every single year. Wells Fargo’s misdeeds included wrongfully repossessing customer vehicles, improperly rejecting thousands of customer applications to modify their mortgages which lead to many losing their homes to foreclosure, charging illegal “surprise overdraft fees” on customers’ debit card transactions and wrongfully freezing more than 1 million consumer banking accounts.
The consequences of this neglect are devastating for those who have been scammed. People have lost their homes, their cards, and their funds to Wells Fargo and other major banks. It is quite ironic that the public makes such a big deal about crypto-currency scams, when the scope of financial fraud from banks is so much larger and more far-reaching. It appears that we are still deluding ourselves when it comes to the dangers of entrusting our money to these institutions.