Justice Department Weighs in Against Wells Fargo in a Whistle-Blower Suit -
By GRETCHEN MORGENSONJUNE 6, 2017
Fresh woes for Wells Fargo and a victory for two of its whistle-blowers occurred late Tuesday when the Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief
in a lawsuit brought against the bank by two former employees, who were fired after they tried to report misdeeds they had observed to their supervisors.
The government’s filing adds heft to a long-running case
that involves behavior that predates the 2008 financial crisis and the sham-accounts scandal that came to light at Wells Fargo last year.
The whistle-blowers who filed the case worked at Wachovia and World Savings, banks that were folded into Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo absorbed World Savings and Wachovia into its operations in 2008, and it has been vigorously defending the case.
Although the Justice Department’s filing does not opine on the whistle-blowers’ claims, it argues
that an appellate court should revise the analysis it made when it dismissed the case last year.
