SEC Charges Former Wells Fargo Executives for Misleading Investors About Key Performance Metric

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged former Wells Fargo & Co. CEO and Chairman John G. Stumpf and former head of Wells Fargo’s Community Bank Carrie L. Tolstedt for their roles in allegedly misleading investors about the success of the Community Bank, Wells Fargo’s core business. The SEC’s filings include settled charges against Stumpf, who agreed to pay a $2.5 million penalty, and a litigated action alleging Tolstedt committed fraud. The SEC previously filed settled charges against Wells Fargo for engaging in the misconduct. According to the SEC’s complaint against Tolstedt, from mid-2014 through mid-2016, Tolstedt publicly described and endorsed Wells Fargo’s “cross-sell metric” as a means of measuring Wells Fargo’s financial success despite the fact that this metric was inflated by accounts and services that were unused, unneeded, or unauthorized.