Monday Money Madness
Posted by Michelle Moquin on September 12th, 2016
Hellooo…and good morning!
I found this on Las Vegas Now:
5,300 Wells Fargo employees fired over 2 million phony accounts
Accounts earned bank unwarranted fees
NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
Everyone hates paying bank fees. But imagine paying fees on a ghost account you didn’t even sign up for.
That’s exactly what happened to Wells Fargo customers nationwide.
On Thursday, federal regulators said Wells Fargo employees secretly created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts — without their customers knowing it — since 2011.
The phony accounts earned the bank unwarranted fees and allowed Wells Fargo employees to boost their sales figures and make more money.
“Wells Fargo employees secretly opened unauthorized accounts to hit sales targets and receive bonuses,” Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement.
Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that it had fired 5,300 employees over the last few years related to the shady behavior. Employees went so far as to create phony PIN numbers and fake email addresses to enroll customers in online banking services, the CFPB said.
The scope of the scandal is shocking. An analysis conducted by a consulting firm hired by Wells Fargo concluded that bank employees opened over 1.5 million deposit accounts that may not have been authorized.
The way it worked was that employees moved funds from customers’ existing accounts into newly-created ones without their knowledge or consent, regulators say. The CFPB described this practice as “widespread.” Customers were being charged for insufficient funds or overdraft fees — because there wasn’t enough money in their original accounts.
Additionally, Wells Fargo employees also submitted applications for 565,443 credit card accounts without their customers’ knowledge or consent. Roughly 14,000 of those accounts incurred over $400,000 in fees, including annual fees, interest charges and overdraft-protection fees.
The CFPB said Wells Fargo will pay “full restitutions to all victims.”
Wells Fargo is being slapped with the largest penalty since the CFPB was founded in 2011. The bank agreed to pay $185 million in fines, along with $5 million to refund customers.
“We regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request,” Wells Fargo said in a statement.
Wells Fargo has the highest market valuation among any bank in America, worth just north of $250 billion. Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm run legendary investor Warren Buffett, is the company’s biggest shareholder.
Of the total fines, $100 million will go toward the CFPB’s Civil Penalty Fund, $35 million will go to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and another $50 million will be paid to the City and County of Los Angeles.
“One wonders whether (the CFPB) penalty of $100 million is enough,” said David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor and former director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “It sounds like a big number, but for a bank the size of Wells Fargo, it isn’t really.”
Wells Fargo confirmed to CNNMoney that the 5,300 firings took place over several years. The bank listed 265,000 employees as of the end of 2015.
“At Wells Fargo, when we make mistakes, we are open about it, we take responsibility, and we take action,” the bank said in a memo to employees on Thursday.
The CFPB declined to comment on when the investigation began and what sparked it, citing agency policy. “We don’t comment on how we uncover these matters,” a spokesman said.
As part of the settlement, Wells Fargo needs to make changes to its sales practices and internal oversight.
Customers are fuming. Brian Kennedy, a Maryland retiree, told CNNMoney he detected an unauthorized Wells Fargo account had been created in his name about a year ago. He asked Wells Fargo about it and the bank closed it, he said.
“I didn’t sign up for any bloody checking account,” Kennedy, who is 57 years old, told CNNMoney. “They lost me as a banking customer and I have warned family and friends.”
“Consumers must be able to trust their banks,” said Mike Feuer, the Los Angeles City Attorney who joined the settlement.
Feuer’s office sued Wells Fargo in May 2015 over allegations of unauthorized accounts. After filing the suit, his office received more than 1,000 calls and emails from customers as well as current and former Wells Fargo employees about the allegations.
Wells Fargo declined to say when it hired a consulting firm to investigate the allegations. However, a person familiar with the matter told CNNMoney the bank launched the review after the L.A. lawsuit was filed.
Even though the Wells Fargo scandal took place nationally, the settlement with L.A. requires the bank to specifically alert all its California customers to review their accounts and shut down ones they don’t recognize or want.
“How does a bank that is supposed to have robust internal controls permit the creation of over a half-million dummy accounts?” asked Vladeck. “If I were a Wells Fargo customer, and fortunately I am not, I’d think seriously about finding a new bank.”
–To reach the author of this article email Matt.Egan@cnn.com
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Readers: I’ve had a bad taste in my mouth for years from the predatory lending practices and dealings of Wells Fargo Bank, the bailout and beyond. Actually I feel that way with most of the BIG banks. Why anyone would still be with a big bank if they could switch is beyond my reasoning. The takers keep taking - Who knows what else will be exposed.
I’m headed home today. I look forward to catching up. Happy Monday!
Thoughts? Blog me.
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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September 12th, 2016 at 12:38 pm
The point of Anonymous is that it’s anonymous and every Guy Fawkes mask looks like every other Guy Fawkes mask. That creates an uncertainty factor around a threat by Anonymous that is, in itself, a force multiplier. I report that Anonymous has come down on the side of the people standing in the way of the Black Snake, the Dakota Access Pipeline….because a person in a Guy Fawkes mask says so in a video posted to YouTube.
The person behind the mask also has released what he claims is personal information about some individuals opposing the residents of the Sacred Stones Camp. Because I do not feel comfortable publishing the information—having no way to verify it—I will not be linking to the Anonymous messages.
The latest communiqué that claims to be from Anonymous and carries the customary symbols addresses “the world” but quickly focuses on North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple.
The masked individual who calls himself Sergeant Anonymous and may or may not represent the hacktivist collective calls Gov. Dalrymple’s decision to mobilize the National Guard against peaceful protestors “a fit of cowardice,” a description hard to dispute. The next statement gets to the nitty-gritty, claiming that the governor stands to make “millions” on the pipeline project and the Indians are standing between him and this stack of money.
Anonymous warns the governor to back off or they will release documents showing the conflict of interest and then goes on to say that if one protestor on the Indian side is harmed, Anonymous will “release docs on” the individuals responsible.
While translating that threat—which extends to individual Guardsmen—is perilous, it has in the past involved monkey wrenching individual credit ratings, cancelling credit cards—electronic mischief ranging from embarrassing to harmful.
Isn’t this kind of hacking against the law? Of course it is. That’s one reason Anonymous is anonymous. But of course doing harm to peaceful protestors is also against the law.
The ultimatum to Gov. Dalrymple came a day after Anonymous posted news and documentation of attacks on protestors by private security forces with dogs and pepper spray, mostly footage from Democracy Now! For those who remember, it was like the second coming of Bull Connor, except the dog handlers were hired muscle rather than paid directly by the public.
The protestors prevailed against private security on camera and they did it without breaking the discipline of nonviolence. In addition to the Democracy Now! footage and other news items, Anonymous published a picture of the head of the security firm on YouTube as well as his home address.
Mobilizing the National Guard was a significant escalation.
Anonymous, should they carry out their threats, will be taking defensive action beyond the abilities of the people being attacked.
Of course, if there are no documents showing a conflict of interest, then the threat is as empty as if the person behind the Guy Fawkes mask were not part of the affinity group of hackers that calls itself Anonymous.
Only Governor Jack Dalrymple knows if he is doing private business with public assets. If he is, he has to wonder how much Anonymous knows and what documents they intend to drop. If he is not, he has nothing to fear.
Whoever the person behind the Guy Fawkes mask is, his claim puts the governor in an interesting situation. The power to force that issue without producing evidence out front is another reason Anonymous is anonymous.
Steve Russell, Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, is a Texas trial court judge by assignment and associate professor emeritus of criminal justice at Indiana University-Bloomington. He lives in Georgetown, Texas.
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/09/12/anonymous-sides-water-protectors
September 12th, 2016 at 3:03 pm
Matt Lauer’s bias against women ruined his ability to pass for a journalist when interviewing Hilary Clinton. He failed to inform the people, and that is the job. Not only did he hurt the American public, but he sent signals to young girls that this is how they will be treated even when they are the smartest person in the room.
September 12th, 2016 at 4:41 pm
Amy Goodman has an arrest warrant out for her for reporting the pipeline news. North Korea exploded a nuclear weapon. These are news articles, Journalists. Not that anybody would know that since you’re busy spreading lies about Secretary Clinton having Parkinson’s Disease and “Keith Urban Exposes Scandal-Soaked Marriage To Nicole Kidman – ‘She’d Get Scared’.”
My god, how low are you going to crawl?
September 13th, 2016 at 6:24 am
Linda#2, so many people have agreed with you.
“Lauer devoted about a third of his time with Mrs. Clinton to questions about her use of a private email server, then seemed to rush through subsequent queries about weighty topics like domestic terror attacks.”
As for his questioning of Trump, here’s The Times’ assessment:
“Mr. Trump stormed onstage in his familiar motor-mouth style, often talking over Mr. Lauer and declining to directly answer many of his questions. At times, Mr. Lauer — who has conducted fewer adversarial interviews with Mr. Trump than his colleagues on NBC’s political desk — appeared flummoxed by his subject’s linguistic feints.”
One point The Times and others honed in on was the fact that Lauer did not challenge Trump on his assertion, which he’s made throughout the campaign, that he’d opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. In fact, when asked by Howard Stern in 2002 whether he supported military action, Trump said, “Yeah, I guess so.”
September 13th, 2016 at 6:39 am
Grace#3, They will crawl as low as their bosses tell the to crawl. The truth is we haven’t had a real news outlet since they went the way of making it just an entertainment channel.
MSNBC has tried repeatedly to keep it a news channel. The ratings tell them the american prefer Nicole Kidman titillation stories to hard news.
So the blame lies with the customer here just as it relies with the voters who make donald trump a viable competitor to Hilary when by all logic she should be running away with this election.
Nothing will change until the demographics change. White america is in control because they have the numbers and the money the advertiser look to take.
Throughout history white america has proven that they have no taste and have to be told what is Good, Bad, or Ugly. The only thing they can be counted on to be consistent with is their racism.
As long as you feed this race of idiots, god, narcissistic shit, and smut disguised as celebrity news those christian hypocrites will eat it up.
As the old saying goes no one has ever gone broke underestimating the stupidity of the american people. Of course you know that was said back in the day when being white was synonymous with being “the american people.”
And it was as true then as it is today because white privilege is as true today as it was then. So rather than rail at windmills, just be patient one day the demographics will change, just as one day we elected a black POTUS.
YES, we will elect a woman. This white man hopes it will be Hilary, but unfortunately I have to cross my fingers because this country is still being run by my race the majority of which always vote color over their own best interest.
September 13th, 2016 at 6:46 am
I love football. The white announcers are out in droves knocking Kapepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem. It appears they are saying it’s the white boys way or the highway. And since the song doesn’t dis our race, then you OTWs had better stand and respect it.
Whether you agree with Colin Kaepernick or not, he’s someone who risked the millions of dollars he earns playing a sport that he loves to stand up for people he’s never met.
September 13th, 2016 at 6:59 am
Linda#2, I agree. He didn’t ask Trump any necessary tough questions, and allowed Trump to tell blatant lies without rebutting any of them.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:00 am
While the former Secretary of State was interrogated on her controversy, viewers felt Lauer neglected to question Trump with the same fervor, often giving him open-ended questions.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:02 am
Linda#2, it seems you have a lot of company in your opinion.
Jon Favreau, the former speechwriter for President Barack Obama, wrote on Twitter, “I don’t blame Lauer for asking the email question. But it’s ABSURD that he started off with Trump, ‘Why should you be Commander-in-Chief?’”
September 13th, 2016 at 7:04 am
Linda#2, you have a big crowd on that bus.
Norman Ornstein @NormOrnstein
It is amazing. Lauer interrupted Clinton’s answers repeatedly to move on. Not once for Trump. Tough to be a woman running for President
September 13th, 2016 at 7:07 am
Zen Lill your suggestion that Obama be given a third term was a nice idea. But I think Obama believes that Hilary will do just fine if given an opportunity. He can’t understand why the majority of white america is so fascinated with the creep.
On Thursday, President Barack Obama called for voters for to reject Trump’s “outright wacky ideas” during a press conference in Laos.
“As far as Mr. Trump, I think I’ve already offered my opinion,” Obama said. “I don’t think the guy’s qualified to be president of the United States and every time he speaks that opinion is confirmed.
“The most important thing for the public and press is to just listen to what he says and follow up and ask questions about what appear to be either contradictory or uninformed or outright wacky ideas.”
September 13th, 2016 at 7:08 am
Whenever someone in the press gets close to being fair to Republicans, the majority of the liberal media can neither comprehend it nor handle it. The truth is that most of them thought that Lauer did not do his duty by debating Trump and taking him out – which would be what they see as the duty of any good American.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:10 am
If Trump thinks being a CEO of the federal government is anything like running a profit driven corporation, he’s flunked his civil service exam to be POTUS. He is not qualified to be commander-in-chief of the military. He does not have a calm, think through thoroughly, bone in his body. He flip flops in his decisions, sometimes changing his mind several times in a day. He does not respect women, does not bode well if he’s challenged and blows a gasket if he thinks he’s being attacked.
Trump’s corruption in business dealings has two more notches to deal with. The first notch has to do with a corruption charged being filed against Trump in a complaint which triggered an investigation over the rumors that Trump bribed Florida Attorney General, Pam Bondi with cash to get her to stop pursuing a case against Trump University. A report published stated that Bondi’s investigation into the Trump University scam was stopped short, and soon after, Bondi received donations of $150,000 from Trump. The second notch moves to Texas: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott received a $35,000 donation to his successful gubernatorial campaign from Donald Trump. This after a Texas probe into Trump University scam was dropped in 2010.
Of course, Trump’s money seems to be able to buy his way out of every ditch he digs for himself. So he thinks….
September 13th, 2016 at 7:12 am
Hillary choked again in the forum. Cough, cough, cough…cough, cough,…
She can’t answer even medium-level press questions of difficulty from Matt Lauer. She should have just barked like a dog.
At least she wouldn’t have embarrassed herself as badly last night if she did that. Arf, arf,…cough, cough,…
September 13th, 2016 at 7:14 am
Bwahahahahaha…… How about some follow up questions for Hillary’s lies:
*”We are not putting ground troops in Iraq ever”…there are already thousands of ground troops in Iraq and Syria- and how can a candidate possibly promise that….does she have a crystal ball?
*”Not one life was lost in Libya” Really???? So the four dead Americans don’t count? What difference does it make?
*”None of the emails sent or received by me had ‘secret’ ‘confidential’ or ‘top secret’ header-Moments later, she contradicted herself and confessed to sending emails involving America’s ‘covert drone program’.
*She said no evidence emails were hacked…even though Comey said her server was vulnerable to hacks from ‘any foreign power or hostile actors’
*She said none of the emails had a classification header, even though many had a ‘C’ on them….and our own Secretary of State told the FBI she didn’t know “‘C’ meant classified.
*Why did you tell your aides to destroy some of your 13 devices (and 5 ipads) with a hammer?
September 13th, 2016 at 7:15 am
She continues to LIE. Saying she did not wear an earpiece. Please. Why is she constantly looking down and the untimely pauses? She makes me sick.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:18 am
Colins#15, Then did you have a crystal ball? How can you know the future?
- No. You did not listen to the answer properly and it states the initial NATO military action during the Libyan campaign which is from March to October 2011. No American lives were lost. The question is for ground combat casualties, not embassy security.
- It meant the (c) is intended as the lowest possible classification. Marking (c) is not the accepted way to mark classified documents. You must remember the no classified documents were found in the server in the 1st place. The classified came afterwards when CIA examined it. There is actually no violation of security. Don’t believe me you can go ask any military officer who handled such documents before. I’ve a vet in my family and he confirmed it. You don’t have to believe me but do go ask around 1st.
- The bb were actually bought with her own $. Basically her own private property. What’s more bb is a sync device. It pulls information from her email server. So in reality they just need to get the email server. She also have a backup server under Datto. Platte River Networks apparently managed the server during her term. Which is why I don’t understand why don’t the Republican committee just subpoena the companies to find the emails. SO much faster.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:19 am
Trudy#16, Stop lying. There is no earpiece. You people are sick. Blatantly making up lies to fit in your narrative. There is a special place in hell for you guys.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:20 am
It’s HILARIOUS to see all the libs freak out and discredit the job he did simply because they didn’t like the end result. hahahahaha!!!
September 13th, 2016 at 7:21 am
Trump is the one that needs earpieces. Just watch him with his precious teleprompters.
Trump has Alzheimer’s and dementia – plus his father died of Alzheimer’s. Trump’s father, Fred Trump, died from complications of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. That condition, which is the most common form of Alzheimer’s, emerges in people in their mid-60s or later. Trump is 70. Family history is critical in understanding possible diseases that may emerge, particularly those with a genetic link like Alzheimer’s has. If you pay attention to Trump whenever he speaks, you can and will see symptoms that are consistent with Alzheimer’s: meandering speech, poor self-control, not properly responding to questions that are asked, erratic behavior.
Have you also noticed that Trump is no longer running his own campaign anymore? His own people no longer trusts Trump to speak “off the cuff” anymore because whenever he does someone has to make excuses for him.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:23 am
Peter#11, Clinton continues with the lies, and it is laughable that Obama says that Trump is not qualified to be President of the US…like HE had so much experience. Joke.
September 13th, 2016 at 7:24 am
jeannie#21, What’s laughable? Trump isn’t qualified.
November 3rd, 2016 at 1:11 am
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