According to investigators, the bank would simply fire individuals as they were caught but didn’t put new guardrails in place to prevent the same problems from happening again and again. At the time, Wells Fargo agreed to pay $185 million in fines, and the story seemed over - but it turns out that was just the tip of the iceberg, and it appears that Wells Fargo will be paying fines and other fees at a price of over $1 billion dollars.
According to investigators, Wells Fargo has also engaged in a number of other illegal activities. They had been charging customers for bogus mortgage fees, telling them they’d missed deadlines that weren’t real, and over half a million customers were enrolled in car insurance they didn’t want or need, while up to 20,000 people had their cars repossessed because they defaulted on loans in large part due to unnecessary costs charged by the bank. They even wrongfully foreclosed on thousands of homes after misapplying mortgage payments. Sickening.