fraud
- Ideologically, when a corporation is responsible for the deliberate mass-deception of its customers
- Contractually, when the affected customers never agreed to anything at all with regard to the accounts at issue
Wells Fargo claims customers agreed to arbitration... for accounts they never asked for
Wells Fargo Killing Sham Account Suits by Using Arbitration
[Jennifer] Zeleny, a lawyer who lives outside Salt Lake City and opened a Wells Fargo account when she started a new law practice, said it would be impossible for her to agree to arbitrate her dispute over an account that she had never signed up for in the first place.The bank’s counterargument: The arbitration clauses included in the legitimate contracts customers signed to open bank accounts also cover disputes related to the false ones set up in their names.
Arbitration is reasonable on a case-by-case basis but it’s a hard concept to defend:
If Wells Fargo has any intellect in the board room or in the C-suites they’re taking this tough stance in public but working quietly on negotiating a mass settlement fund.
Of course, any intellect in the board room or the C-suites would likely prevent the type of sales environment which catalyzed this large-scale fraud and identity theft operation.
Christmas in jail
John Futty, reporting for The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio:
Judge Michael J. Holbrook placed Young on probation yesterday for five years and ordered that she spend a minimum of three days in jail each Christmas while on probation.
This made me smile. Now, crime is bad, and Christmas in jail is bad. But what a creative way to punish a fraudster without wasting taxpayer money on a non-violent offender.