LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $3 billion to settle criminal and civil investigations into a long-running practice whereby company employees opened millions of unauthorized bank accounts in order to meet unrealistic sales goals.
Since the fake-accounts scandal came to light in 2016, Wells has paid out billions in fines to state and federal regulators, reshuffled its board of directors and seen two CEOs and other top-level executives leave the company.
The $3 billion payment announced Friday includes a $500 million civil payment to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which will distribute those funds to investors who were impacted by Wells' behavior.
Since 2016, the bank has battled a laundry list of legal troubles, including creating fake accounts, forcing customers into car insurance purchases they didn't need, overcharging customers, and charging them mortgage fees they didn't deserve.
