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.

A lawyer for McLinko said the executive served "honorably

and diligently" as an auditor for decades.

"We have said from the beginning of this case that he

will be vindicated once an independent court takes the time to

look at the entire record. Now ... this case will finally be

heard from judges who don't work for the agency," McLinko's

lawyer Timothy Crudo said in a statement.

Lawyers for Julian and Russ Anderson did not immediately

respond to requests for comment. A Wells Fargo ( WFC ) spokesperson

declined to 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.