A shareholder suit against the directors of Wells Fargo for negligence and complicity in the creation of millions of fake accounts for the fees has survived an effort at dismissal, raising the possibility of a very rare ruling of liability for board members.
[Judge John Tigar] found the complaint properly laid out evidence showing executives and directors made false statements about the scheme in the bank’s filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission…Tigar found the bank’s board members and managers knew about the illicit account-creation scheme by 2014 and also knew they’d made false statements in securities filings about the program, designed to bump up bonuses for Wells Fargo employees.
“Just as it is implausible that the director defendants were unaware of the account-creation scheme given the extent of the alleged fraud and the number of red flags, it is implausible that Wells Fargo’s senior management, involved in the day-to-day operations of the bank” weren’t aware of the effort, the judge said.
