Wells Fargo CEO resigns amidst scandal

Former Wells Fargo CEO John Strumpf officially resigned Oct. 13 after it was revealed earlier last month that the bank opened more than a million fake bank accounts, forcing him to forfeit $41 million in stock awards.

Nonetheless, Senator Elizabeth Warren does not believe his resignation is enough and feels that Strumpf should actually be facing criminal charges.

“If Mr. Strumpf is leaving with all of his ill- gotten millions, that’s still not real accountability,” said Warren, regarding the issue in a statement she wrote on Twitter Wednesday night shortly after Strumpf announced his resignation.

Warren went on to say, “A bank teller would face criminal charges and a prison sentence for stealing a handful of 20’s from the cash drawer. A bank CEO should not be able to oversee a massive fraud and simply walk away to enjoy his millions in retirement.”

The US Senator from Massachusetts has already confronted Strumpf in September, referring to him as a “gutless leader” as well as called for his resignation during a senate hearing.

But now that Strumpf has resigned, Warren believes that he is not being held accountable for the fraud he committed.

Wells Fargo paid a $185 million fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau while Strumpf still got to walk away from the whole situation with well over $100 million, despite the scandal.

Warren is not happy that Strumpf was quick to blame the 5,300 lower-level employees for this scandal after the employees involved were fired by Wells Fargo.

During last month’s senate hearing, Warren stated “You squeezed your employees to the breaking point so they would cheat customers and you could drive up the value of your stock and put hundreds of millions of dollars in your own pocket.”

Now that Strumpf has retired, the frustration from Warren has only grown stronger after only a month ago she told Strumpf he should be criminally investigated and she called him out for not firing a single senior executive.

Although the $41 million Strumpf forfeited is the largest compensation forfeiture from a major US bank since the 2008 financial crisis, it is still far from what Warren believes Strumpf should be forfeiting, such as his freedom.

According to public filings, Strumpf will resign with around $134.1 million, a sizeable amount of money all things considered.

Before the fake account scandal, Wells Fargo was the world’s most valuable bank, as reported by USA Today. Since the scandal, the bank has only dropped from its top ranking and now sits in the no. 2 position behind J.P. Morgan Chase.

Even through the midst of a national fraud scandal like this, the general value of the bank has not been affected as severely as one would’ve expected following a massive scam.

Strumpf, a 34-year veteran and CEO of Wells Fargo from 2007-2016, earned a whopping $19.3 million in pay last year.