WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A U.S. banking regulator
said on Tuesday it had fined three former executives at Wells
Fargo ( WFC ) for their roles in the bank's long-running fake
accounts scandal.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said Claudia
Russ Anderson, the bank's former community bank group risk
officer, would be fined $10 million and prohibited from working
in the banking industry. David Julian, the bank's former chief
auditor and Paul McLinko, its former executive audit director,
were fined $7 million and $1.5 million, respectively.
The trio had been previously charged by the OCC in 2020,
alongside other former senior leadership of the bank, but had
opted not to settle. The regulator had previously fined eight
other former bank executives, including former CEO John Stumpf,
a total of $43.2 million.
Lawyers for the three did not immediately respond to
requests for comment. A Wells Fargo ( WFC ) spokesperson did not
immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, the OCC said Russ Anderson failed to
credibly challenge the bank's incentive compensation program,
which regulators found encouraged employees to create bank
accounts for customers without their knowledge. The OCC said she
"repeatedly and consistently downplayed" the misconduct, and
also failed to provide information to regulators when examining
the bank.
The OCC said Julian and McLinko failed to effectively audit
the bank in a way that would have detected the misconduct, and
failed to escalate the issues.