My 10,000 foot level analysis of this whole thing is as follows:
1.) The primary wrong-doing was by the 5,300 lower level employees, and the primary victim was the WF shareholder.
2.) The vast majority of bank customers are probably unaffected. Most accounts were setup with no money, and billed no money. The whole scheme gets exposed if the sales people need to come up with customer money.
3.) There could be complicity from upper management as well. Their victim would also have been the WF shareholder.
4.) The key to finding out what happened with upper management would have been to get someone to talk. WF essentially paid the lady in charge of that area a ton of money ($45MM+) to retire. If things got ugly she might have spilt the beans? If there were any beans. This whole part is very Clintonian -- at this point there is no proof of anything (for the execs). We just suspect.
5.) Talking with investors about how great you at are cross-selling and deepening your relationship with customers is not a crime.
1.) The primary wrong-doing was by the 5,300 lower level employees, and the primary victim was the WF shareholder.
2.) The vast majority of bank customers are probably unaffected. Most accounts were setup with no money, and billed no money. The whole scheme gets exposed if the sales people need to come up with customer money.
3.) There could be complicity from upper management as well. Their victim would also have been the WF shareholder.
4.) The key to finding out what happened with upper management would have been to get someone to talk. WF essentially paid the lady in charge of that area a ton of money ($45MM+) to retire. If things got ugly she might have spilt the beans? If there were any beans. This whole part is very Clintonian -- at this point there is no proof of anything (for the execs). We just suspect.
5.) Talking with investors about how great you at are cross-selling and deepening your relationship with customers is not a crime.