DOJ’s Tough Talk Sees First Test

The case over Wells Fargo’s acknowledgment that its employees opened as many as two million bogus accounts, and in some cases forged customer signatures, is the perfect testing ground for tough new Justice Department guidelines, say legal observers. Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates last year issued the new guidelines, which explicitly stated the agency would pursue accountability from individuals in cases of corporate wrongdoing. “We should really hold the Department of Justice’s feet to the fire here,” Columbia Law School professor John C. Coffee Jr., told the New York Times. Wells Fargo reached a $185 million settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other agencies, and admitted that thousands of its employees opened the fraudulent accounts in an effort to reach aggressive sales targets. Sen. Elizabeth Warren last week called for the resignation of Wells Fargo chief executive John G. Stumpf. “You should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission,” Warren said during a Congressional hearing.