Posted on 11/26/2016 5:03:48 PM PST by Lorianne
Even though disgraced Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has left the building, his most outrageous legal theories live on: on Wednesday, the company filed a motion in a federal court in Utah seeking dismissal of a class action suit by the customers it defrauded -- the bank argues that since customers sign a binding arbitration "agreement" when they open new accounts, that the customers whose signatures were forged on fraudulent new accounts should be subject to this agreement and denied a day in court. REPORT THIS AD This is the same argument that Stumpf made during his disastrous performance in front of a blazing Elizabeth Warren -- that Wells's poor customers should be subjected to agreements they never made, because Wells stole their identities and "agreed" on their behalf.
Mandatory arbitration rules inserted into account-opening agreements prohibit customers from joining class actions or suing Wells Fargo. Instead, the agreements require individual, closed-door arbitration. Mandating arbitration when signing up for financial products has become standard practice after a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court decision validated the practice. But customer advocates say it improperly denies customers the legal protections of court proceedings, such as the right to appeal, and helps to conceal corporate misconduct from the public and regulators because documents and hearings are not made public. Customers trying to recover small sums of money are also unlikely to find lawyers to represent them in arbitration, critics say, and the cases do not set a legal precedent to help other affected individuals.
(Excerpt) Read more at boingboing.net ...
Uh-uh... fraud won’t work, Wells Fargo...
Headline error.
That aside, how outrageous wfc’s theory is will depend on the wording of the customer’s agreement with them.
And if the customer didn't sign the agreement for accounts fraudulently opened in their name...? I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter at all what the agreement states since they're not a party to it.
The agreement they actually did sign might cover all claims for fraud.
We recently had the bank try to slip
In $$1800 of extra fees — after it promised there wouldn’t be any such charges. That included $500 for a phantom appraisal — the contract was for a no- appraisal loan!! Ungood.
Wow, you mean a “cost of doing (criminal) business” fine isn’t enough to discourage bad behavior? I’m shocked.
Even if one hasn’t been personally harmed by this conduct, and even if it is a major inconvenience, it is the obligation of every Wells Fargo customer now to close their accounts as quickly as possible and move on. They will not learn, and they are Too Big to be Spanked.
How sharia of them.
They should shut down the company and distribute all the assets between the shareholders & everyone that was defrauded.
Where are the crosshairs for this photo?
Try again.
Looks like he may have gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
.
Won’t work for you and me anyway...
.
Customer never agreed to have the accounts opened, never signed anything, never even knew it was being done until after the fact. Their signatures were forged by Wells-Fargo employees.
Talk about chutzpah and screwing their customers not once but twice. I have no accounts with them other than a mortgage that is a few years from being paid off. I’d refinance just to get away from them, but it won’t pay out.
I’ll have no desire to do business with such a miserable, dishonest company again, once I’m done and out.
I despise Wells Fargo as a fee-hungry bank that watched accounts close because they refused to listen to complaints about fees; long ago they stopped sending out customer satisfaction surveys (they really couldn’t care less).
That being said, I can’t for the life of me figure out how they thought these scams were going to work; did they really think most of these victims wouldn’t notice new fee-laden accounts opened in their names? I mean, you need an opening deposit from somewhere, no?
What a phucking pussy...wrap your hand in gauze and ask for forgiveness...what a putz
WF needs to give every affected customer a few thousand dollars in addition to actual losses.
Their attitude proves they approved of the fraud.
so much for the commercials they've been running on Fox then saying they will make whole all customers who had accounts opened without their knowledge
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.