Former Wells Fargo employees who say they were fired for following the law have filed a class-action lawsuit seeking $2.6 billion in damages as the fallout continues over the creation of millions of secret, unauthorized bank accounts.
Two employees are named in the lawsuit, filed on behalf of all the bank's employees in the past 10 years who were penalized for not making sales quotas.
As The Two-Way has reported, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo settled with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau earlier this month over allegations of widespread illegal activities. Thousands of employees opened bank accounts without customer approval, investigators say -- more than 2 million such accounts may have been created.
Wells Fargo agreed to pay $185 million in fines and penalties, and said it had refunded $2.6 million to customers who were charged fees as part of the scheme. The bank fired more than 5,300 employees over the fraud.
The class-action suit, filed in California court late last week, focuses on a different set of fired employees: Those who didn't break the law.