Wells Fargo boss blamed for scandal
Probe finds sales abuses were hidden from board
New York An out-of-control sales culture, a defensive boss obsessed with stamping out negative views about her division and a group CE who called her "the best banker in America" were to blame for Wells Fargo’s devastating sales scandal, an internal investigation has found. The probe into how the San Francisco-based bank could have allowed abusive sales practices to fester for years at its branch network laid most of the blame on the former head of the retail division, Carrie Tolstedt, and some of her management team, in a report released to the media on Monday. In the report, which was carried out by Wells Fargo chairman Stephan Sanger and three independent directors, Tolstedt is blamed for ignoring the systemic nature of the problem, which was pinned instead on individual wrongdoers, and she was accused of obstructing the board’s efforts to get to the bottom of what was going on. John Stumpf, the CE who retired under pressure in October, was criticised for failing to grasp the gra...
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