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What controls should have been in place to prevent the scandal at Wells Fargo
What controls should have been in place to prevent the scandal at Wells Fargo
What controls should have been in place to prevent the scandal at Wells Fargo
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One of the most recent stories involving white-collar crimes in the United States involves the Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo is banking and a financial institution that offers financial services to very many people in the United States as well as around the world. As reported by the Washington Post, Wells Fargo as banking and a financial institution was involved defrauding its customers millions of dollars through their employees. It was reported that the employees were involved in the opening of close to 2 million bank accounts with Wells Fargo and proceeded to offer credit cards towards the same as a way of attracting the huge bonuses that were being offered (Merle, 2017). The white-collar crime perpetuated by Wells Fargo falls under the Corporate …show more content…
This involved sacking of all the employees who had involved themselves in the scam and ensuring that they faced the full force of the law as it is required under the law. A back with such kind of reputation to be implicated in a huge scandal like the one it was involved cannot be looked upon lightly. The news posts suggest that such acts and those who were involved should not be left to go scot free as they have gained a lot from the scandal. The news post also questions the code of ethics in operation in the bank. Ideally, bank staffs are supposed to observe high levels of disciplines especially when the customers are involved. The employees’ actions were a manifestation of how weak the code of conduct with which the bank is applying is and therefore needs a lot of …show more content…
(2016, September 29). Wells Fargo Crooks Stole from Customers, Reaped Obscene Rewards—and Stuck Us with the Bill. The Nation. Retrieved 1 June 2017, from https://www.thenation.com/article/wells-fargo-crooks-stole-from-customers-reaped-obscene-rewards-and-stuck-us-with-the-bill/
Brodwin, D. (2016, November 2). The Big Wells Fargo Picture. US News. Retrieved June 1, 2017, from https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2016-11-02/what-the-wells-fargo-scandal-teaches-us-about-deterring-white-collar-crime
Merle, R. (2017, March 30). What Wells Fargo dodged by agreeing to pay $110 million to settle fake accounts case. Washington Post. Retrieved 1 June 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2017/03/30/what-wells-fargo-dodged-by-agreeing-to-pay-110-million-to-settle-fake-accounts-case/?utm_term=.64ee8223e583
Wells Fargo branch boss linked to scam exited with $125M. (2017). New York Post. Retrieved 1 June 2017, from http://nypost.com/2016/09/12/wells-fargo-branch-boss-linked-to-scam-walked-away-125m/
Wells Fargo exec who headed unit involved in scandal due $125 million in retirement. (2016). Fox News. Retrieved 1 June 2017, from
Employees were using the cross-selling which is a concept of attempting to sell multiple products to consumers. This concept led to fraudulent actions, in fact employees were encouraged to order credit cards for pre-approved customers without their consent, and to use their own contact information when filling out requests to prevent customers from discovering the fraud. " The Wells Fargo scandal was far different. Instead of a select few doing bad things, the unethical behavior was widespread at the bank, with thousands of employees engaged in secretly creating new bank and credit-card accounts for customers without their knowledge, resulting in overdraft and other fees." (Kouchaki, 2016). According to the Los Angeles City Attorney, employees were opening and funding accounts without customers' permission or knowledge in order to "satisfy sales goals and earn financial rewards under the bank's incentive-compensation program." This means that the board members of the bank were aware of that it wasn't by the employees' own wills. In fact, they were pressured by aggressive goals and performance which led them to immoral behaviors. Facing this problem, Wells Fargo bank had to take some measures to avoid bankruptcy, losing customers, or loosing brand
...: Wall Street Insider - Financial News, Headlines, Commentary and Analysis - Hedge Funds, Private Equity, Banks. Retrieved January 15, 2012, from http://dealbreaker.com/2010/06/wachovia-vp-had-good-reason-to-steal-money-from-bank-that-youll-probably-never-understand/
Eaglesham, J. (2011, January 22). Bank Fine Hints at Feds' Playbook. Retrieved December 1, 2013, from Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303936704576399801103678040
In the Matt Taibi book, discussed how a family owned bank called Abacus Federal Saving Bank got prosecuted for the collapse of the world economy in 2008. However, big companies like Citi Bank, Wells Fargo, Chase never get prosecuted even though they all have been involved in countless scandals in crisis of ‘08. A disester caused by an epidemic of criminal fraud that crashed out 40 percent of the world’s wealth. These banks had been caught selling defective loans that had actualy cost victims huge amounts of money, and nobody from these giant companies was being arrested. These banks had already paid hundreds of millions of dollars in civil settlements for virtually every kind of fraud and manupulation. If the monopoly banks like Citi banks,
The term “fraud” is commonly used to describe the use of deception to deprive, disadvantage or cause loss to another person or party. This can include theft, the misuse of funds or other resources, or more complicated crimes such as false accounting and the supply of false information. This case study of Mountain State Sporting Goods is an excellent example of individuals acting on the opportunity to financial benefit by committing what they thought was harmless adjustments, but in reality was fraud. In this case study there are is just so much wrong with this company and how it operates. We noticed multiple areas of concern before even seeing the financial statements and my concerns were confirmed upon further investigation.
Today, worldwide, there are several thousands of crimes being committed. Some don’t necessarily require a lethal weapon but are associated with various types of sophisticated fraud, this also known as a white-collar crime. These crimes involve a few different methods that take place within a business setting. While ethical business practices add money to the bottom line, unethical practices are ultimately leading to business failure and impacting the U.S. financially.
In regards to culpability for the Wells Fargo scandal, who deserves to accept the responsibility? On one hand, the employees themselves actually generated the false accounts. While the pressure for success and lucrative incentives constantly loom over their heads, the decision to create fraudulent accounts belongs solely to employees. These employees had complete understanding that the consequences of their actions had much greater ramifications for the company and its customers than for the employees themselves. To put this idea in perspective, if an employee underperformed, he risks losing his job, while problematic, the side effects remain temporary. On the contrary, if held accountable for credit card debt she never accrued, a customer
The Associated Press. (2007). Freddie Mac pays $50M to settle fraud charges. Washington: USA TODAY.
Hanson, J. R. (n.d.). Fraud or confusion? RDH Magazine, 19(4). Retrieved 3 15, 2014, from http://www.rdhmag.com/articles/print/volume-19/issue-4/feature/fraud-or-confusion.html
Legal responsibilities at Wells Fargo include a wide variety of issues. They can be from protecting customer’s rights to securing company policy. Customers trust Wells Fargo with private and privileged information. Therefore, the bank must main...
Marilyn Price and Donna Norris” (Perri, J.D., CFE, CPA, 2011, p. 23). Even though white collar crimes do not seem as violent as someone that commits murder there is still major damage done. For example, a fraud victim goes through a lot of hardship. They can be harassed, have their identity stolen, and lose everything. This, in many cases, can be looked at as a serious crime.
In 2008 the worst financial crisis since the great depression hit and left many people wondering who should be responsible. Many Americans supported the prosecution of Wall Street. To this day there have still not been any arrests of any executive on Wall Street for the financial collapse. Many analysts point out that greed of executives was one of the many factors in the crisis. I will talk about subprime loans, ill-intent, punishments, and white collar crime.
Unattributed, (2009, April 187). Combat Fraud of Almost $1 Trillion, Retrieved March 03, 2014 from Internet site http://ethicaladvocate.blogspot.com/
During the past year Wells Fargo, a well-recognized bank of the United States, has been trying to clean its name and the mess it got itself into, when it was brought to the public that the bank was involved in generating fraudulent checking and savings accounts for its clients without their knowledge or their authorization. “The way it worked was that employees moved funds from customers' existing accounts into newly-created ones without their knowledge or consent”
White-collar crimes and organizational structure are related because white collar-crimes thrive in organizations that have weak structures. According to Price and Norris (2009), the elites who commit white collar-crimes usually exploit weaknesses in organizational structure and formulate rules and regulations that favor their crimes. Makansi (2010) examines case studies to prove that white-collar crime is dependent on organizational structure. For example, the financial crisis that Merchant Energy Business faced in 2001-2002 occurred due to the liberal Financial Accounting Board, which failed to provide a standard model of valuing natural gas and fuel. Moreover, a financial crisis that rocked the securitization market in 2008 was due to fraudulence in the pricing of securitization products. These examples ...