{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-colleagues-call-for-justice-department-to-hold-wells-fargo-executives-accountable_", "King, Colleagues Call for Justice Department to Hold Wells Fargo Executives Accountable", "2016-10-05", "2016", "2016-10", "Independent", "House", "ME", "Angus King", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "King, Colleagues Call for Justice Department to Hold Wells Fargo Executives Accountable  \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\tSenators: There Shouldn\u2019t Be a Separate Set of Rules for Wall Street and Main Street\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tWednesday, October 5, 2016\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tRANGELEY, ME \u2013 U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) has joined a coalition of his colleagues in urging the Justice Department to investigate and, if appropriate, prosecute individual wrongdoing at Wells Fargo after revelations that the bank\u2019s employees had opened millions of accounts without customer approval. In September, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its largest penalty to date of more than $100 million to the bank for the well-documented, unfair, and abusive practices that placed consumers at financial risk. In a letter sent yesterday, Senator King and his colleagues urged Attorney General Loretta Lynch to not only hold Wells Fargo accountable as a corporation, but also to prosecute individual executives who may have broken the law.\r\n\u201cA bank teller that takes a handful of bills from the cash drawer is likely to face charges for theft and prison time.\u00a0 She can\u2019t hide behind an army of lawyers and corporate policies that diffuse accountability for those at the top.\u00a0 Meanwhile, an executive who oversees a massive fraud that implicates thousands of bank employees and costs customers millions of dollars can walk away with a hefty retirement package and millions in the bank,\u201d Senator King and his colleagues wrote. \u201cEvery time the Department of Justice settles a case of corporate fraud without holding individuals accountable, it reinforces the notion that the wealthy and powerful have purchased a higher class of justice for themselves.\u201d\r\nThe letter from the Justice Department follows another that Senator King led last week calling on the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco\u2019s Board of Directors to not reappoint John Stumpf, the CEO of Wells Fargo, to another term on the Federal Advisory Council. The Council is responsible for consulting with and offering direct insight to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on a broad range of economic, monetary, and financial issues. Shortly after the letter was sent, Stumpf announced his resignation from the council.\r\nIn addition to Senator King, the letter sent to Attorney General Lynch was signed by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Oreg.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Oreg.).\r\nThe complete text of the letter is below:\r\n+++\r\nDear Attorney General Lynch:\r\nAccording to public filings, the Department of Justice is investigating whether Wells Fargo violated federal laws when its employees opened as many as two million deposit and credit card accounts without customer authorization over the span of several years.\r\nAs part of this investigation, we urge you to thoroughly investigate the culpability of senior executives at the bank.\u00a0 We believe this is a critical test of the Department\u2019s promise last September to \u201cstrengthen [its] pursuit of individual corporate wrongdoing\u201d and to \u201cfocus on individuals from the inception of the investigation.\u201d\u00a0\r\nFollowing the 2008 financial crisis, the American people watched as senior executives repeatedly escaped accountability for actions that nearly brought down the global economy.\u00a0 No top Wall Street executives went to prison or even faced prosecution.\u00a0 Instead, the government regularly settled for a penalty that was borne by the bank\u2019s shareholders, not its executives.\u00a0 Even that penalty tended to pale in comparison to the profits the bank generated from its illegal activity.\u00a0\r\nThat trend has continued.\u00a0 In 2015, for example, BNP Paribas was ordered to pay nearly $9 billion in penalties for violating sanctions against Sudan, Cuba, and Iran.\u00a0 The firm potentially compromised U.S. national security objectives by facilitating billions of dollars in transactions for sanctioned entities, yet none of the bank\u2019s employees faced charges.\r\nAmericans are rightly frustrated when they see that justice for the wealthy and powerful is very different than justice for everybody else.\u00a0 A bank teller that takes a handful of bills from the cash drawer is likely to face charges for theft and prison time.\u00a0 She can\u2019t hide behind an army of lawyers and corporate policies that diffuse accountability for those at the top.\u00a0 Meanwhile, an executive who oversees a massive fraud that implicates thousands of bank employees and costs customers millions of dollars can walk away with a hefty retirement package and millions in the bank.\u00a0 It\u2019s no wonder that Americans are skeptical of the effectiveness of our criminal justice system.\r\nThe Justice Department promised to change this two-tiered system in a September 9, 2015 memo issued to the nation\u2019s federal prosecutors by Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates.\u00a0 The memo articulated new policies that prioritize the investigation and prosecution of individual corporate employees.\u00a0 As stated in the memo, \u201c[o]ne of the most effective ways to combat corporate misconduct is by seeking accountability from the individuals who perpetrated the wrongdoing.\u201d In an interview following the release of the memo, Deputy Attorney General Yates stated, \u201cIt\u2019s only fair that the people who are responsible for committing those crimes be held accountable. The public needs to have confidence that there is one system of justice and it applies equally regardless of whether that crime occurs on a street corner or in a boardroom.\u201d\r\nWe could not agree more.\u00a0 Every time the Department of Justice settles a case of corporate fraud without holding individuals accountable, it reinforces the notion that the wealthy and powerful have purchased a higher class of justice for themselves.\u00a0\r\nThat\u2019s why the Wells Fargo investigation is so important.\u00a0 Last week\u2019s Senate Banking Committee hearing with Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf raised serious questions that demand additional answers and point to potential individual wrongdoing.\u00a0 Mr. Stumpf testified under oath that he became aware of employees creating fraudulent bank accounts in 2013.\u00a0 Yet for years thereafter, Mr. Stumpf did not disclose that information to investors and did not take decisive action to crack down on the incentives that encouraged that behavior, even as the bank fired more than 5000 employees for improper behavior.\u00a0 Instead, he continued to personally benefit by pitching Wells\u2019 inflated retail account numbers to investors.\u00a0\r\nWe are not in a position to determine if any of the senior executives at Wells Fargo committed criminal conduct.\u00a0 That is ultimately the job of the Justice Department and courts.\u00a0 But these facts raise questions about whether senior executives, including Mr. Stumpf, knowingly allowed illegal conduct to continue.\u00a0 As University of Virginia Law Professor Brandon Garrett noted, \u201cIf it was one person or even 100, you might argue it was a rogue contingent.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t seriously argue that 5,000 people have gone rogue. That\u2019s systemic behavior. People above them had to have noticed.\u201d\r\nWhile the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency settlements in this case are a good first step toward providing restitution to Wells Fargo\u2019s customers, they are no substitute for a thorough Justice Department investigation into potential wrongdoing by senior executives at the bank.\u00a0 We hope the Department follows through on its promise in the Yates memo and brings all the resources it has to bear on investigating the conduct of Wells Fargo\u2019s senior leadership.\u00a0\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/king-colleagues-call-for-justice-department-to-hold-wells-fargo-executives-accountable_"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.69010304287076, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}