Wells faces Justice Department fraud probe of wholesale bank: Report

Wells Fargo’s wholesale banking unit is being investigated by the Justice Department, which is looking into whether employees committed fraud by altering customer data, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Investigators have sought more information from the bank in recent weeks about whether management pressured workers to improperly change documents in order to meet a regulatory deadline, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter it did not identify.

Officials at Wells Fargo and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The company found that employees had added information to internal customer records without the clients’ knowledge, a person briefed on the situation said in May. The bank discovered the improper activity and reported it to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the person said.

Wells Fargo has struggled to move past a wave of scandals, which led to a Federal Reserve ban on increasing assets until the lender fixes its missteps.

The bank dropped 78 cents to $58.17 as of 10:54 a.m. in New York, extending its decline for the year to 4.1%

Bloomberg News
Crime and misconduct Commercial banking Wells Fargo DoJ
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