Free Republic

Hours after landing a massive tax windfall, AT&T, Comcast, Wells Fargo and Boeing — among other major companies — announced plans Wednesday to share a fraction of their bounty with workers. The moves pleased President Donald Trump, who has claimed his $1.5 trillion in tax cuts that largely favor the wealthy and businesses would ultimately help the middle class. But Democratic lawmakers and corporate watchdogs say the move is a public relations stunt that pales in comparison to the profits the companies’ shareholders and executives will reap because of the lower tax rates. The stock market, as well, has risen...

Expect a stampede of companies handing out bonuses, raising pay, spending on capital projects and giving to charities, with the windfall from the massive corporate tax cuts passed Wednesday. In the hours after Congress the GOP tax cut plan, a handful of companies jumped to announce plans to share some of the proceeds on their employees and spend on infrastructure. AT&T was first out of the gate, saying it would give more than 200,000 unionized employees a special bonus of $1,000 once the tax bill is signed. The company also said it would increase its capital expenditures by $1 billion....

NBC-owned television stations in cities across the nation just teamed up with a nonprofit “journalism” group funded by a billionaire husband and wife team who not only spent millions campaigning for President Obama but also topped donor lists to groups like ACORN and MoveOn.org. The nonprofit, ProPublica, will contribute to the news operations of all NBC owned-and-operated stations, including those in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia, the network announced Monday. The NBC affiliates will get early access to investigative reports from ProPublica, which describes itself as an “independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public...

A federal judge in San Francisco has refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Wells Fargo bank of denying loans to immigrants who came to the U.S. as youngsters and have been allowed to remain here. Denial of loans based on citizenship status violates a federal law, passed in 1870, and a California civil rights law, U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney said Thursday in rejecting the bank’s attempt to dismiss the proposed nationwide class-action suit. Wells Fargo, according to the suit, has a policy of granting loans only to U.S. citizens or to noncitizens who have become permanent legal residents and...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is calling for the ouster of 12 board members at Wells Fargo due to the fake accounts scandal that has rocked the bank. In a letter sent Monday to Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, the Massachusetts Democrat said the scandal has "revealed severe problems with the bank's risk management practices." Warren said the central bank has the authority under federal statute to remove the members who were on the board as the matter transpired. "We have received the letter and plan to respond," a Fed spokesman told CNBC. In an agreement with multiple authorities last September, Wells...

The Center for American Progress is a left-wing organization that is closely associated with the Obama administration. Its principal product is a web site called Think Progress. Think Progress is part of the internet cesspool that modern liberalism has become. Written by hack left-wing bloggers, it is bitterly hostile to free enterprise. It is a low-rent site that traffics in the most absurd smears and conspiracy theories. Many have wondered for some years who finances far-left web sites like Think Progress. As of today, we know at least part of the answer, as CAP released its corporate donor list for...

Wells Fargo branches across the country deliberately targeted “undocumented immigrants” to open savings and checking accounts in order to meet aggressive sales goals, according to court documents. In sworn declarations obtained by Burlingame plaintiff’s attorney Joseph Cotchett, former employees describe a scheme in which Spanish-speaking colleagues would visit places they knew were frequented by immigrants (including construction sites and a 7-Eleven), drive them to a branch and persuade them to open an account. Some employees would give the immigrants $10 apiece to start an account. The events described in the declaration go back a decade. “The conduct we have come...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned Wells Fargo & Company over its funding for the Dakota Access pipeline, saying he has the power to pull the plug on the bank’s contract for operating accounts. “I am writing to express my deep concern about your involvement, and the involvement of other banks, in financing the Dakota Access Pipeline,” de Blasio wrote in a Feb. 17 letter to Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan. He said his concern stemmed from the fact that he is the mayor of a “coastal city threatened by climate change" and that such a structure carrying...

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio threatened Wells Fargo bank for its investment in the North Dakota Access Pipeline. In a February 17 letter to Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan, de Blasio said he wanted to “express my deep concern about your involvement, and the involvement of other banks, in financing the Dakota Access Pipeline,” noting his concern is partly based on being a Mayor of a “coastal city threatened by climate change.” De Blasio claimed the pipeline would violate “human and tribal rights of the Standing Rock Indian Reservation” and would have “negative environmental consequences” to the land...

Back in September of last year, Wells Fargo was rocked by a fake accounts scandal, whereas 5,300 of their employees had been in on a scam to create fake checking accounts for existing customers (without telling them, of course) so they could charge fees on the accounts to unsuspecting customers. In total, over two million fake checking accounts were created, and unauthorized applications for 565,443 credit cards were sent out. Needless to say, the $185 million in fines they paid is minuscule in comparison to what such scandals do to a brand’s image. And it’s with that in mind that...

Eight-years after taxpayers rescued the U.S. financial system, some of the country's largest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, continue to receive billions in bailout money, according to government data. Wells Fargo is eligible for up to $1.5 billion in bailout funds over the next seven years. JPMorgan and Bank of America could receive $1.1 billion and $964 million respectively. The continuous flow of funds is a remnant of the $700 billion bailout effort, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program or TARP, put in place during the financial crisis. Some of that money, about $28 billion, was carved...

A North Dallas man is so angry with Wells Fargo, he has taken out a full-page ad in The Dallas Morning News and three other newspapers Thursday to the tune of a quarter-of-a-million dollars. Lacy Harber, 80, of Dennison, says he lost close to $5 million one day alone in a dealing with one of the branches of Wells Fargo. It has been very upsetting to both Harber and his wife, and in his full-page ad, he used the words "greed," "dishonesty," and "betrayal" in describing the San Francisco-based banking giant. Harber says he is a longtime customer, and Wells...

... The white-haired, 63-year-old CEO repeatedly told a congressional panel that he had to check with staff, lacked information or was not an "expert" on a range of topics including executive compensation, credit scores and contracts that must be signed to open an account. Earlier this month, the lender agreed to pay $190 million in penalties and customer payouts to settle the case involving the creation of credit, savings and other accounts without customers' knowledge. About $5 million will directly go to customers, many of whom might have paid a small fee on the unwanted accounts. His responses gave plenty...

Wells Fargo will pay $24 million to settle allegations that it mistreated members of the military -- including illegally repossessing their cars. The bank, already reeling from a scandal over fake accounts, will pay $4.1 million to settle Justice Department charges that it seized 413 cars owned by service members without a court order, a violation of federal law. The Justice Department said the illegal repossessions took place from 2008 to 2015. The first complaint came from an Army National Guardsman in North Carolina who said the bank seized his car while he was preparing to deploy to Afghanistan. Wells...

Corporate interests and influences have gained a great deal of ground in the Democratic Party under Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. For example, Clinton’s 2008 campaign co-chair, former Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz rescinded a DNC ban enacted by Barack Obama in 2008 on donations from lobbyists and SuperPACS. The decision helped Clinton keep up with Bernie Sanders’ grassroots fundraising. . . --------------------------------------------------------------------------snip--------------------- According to the filing report, some of the donors include George Soros’ son, Alexander, who gave $200,000; Priorities USA, a SuperPAC funded by George Soros, gave $1.5 million; Bank of America gave $1 million; Chevron gave...

Each passing week brings us closer to the most critical election of our lifetimes, and with each passing week we learn vividly what is actually at stake. Monday’s debate promises to be the most watched in the nation’s history, and why not? As Obama finishes his eighth year in office, the United States is practically disintegrating under the weight of terrorism – from both jihadis and faux civil rights groups like Black Lives Matter. Last weekend and into Monday morning, a would-be mass murder planted a series of bombs across New York and New Jersey. Only dumb luck spared the...

That did not take long. Just hours after a CNN report suggested that Wells Fargo was retaliating, and firing, company whistleblowers who had spoken out against the company's illegal "account creation" practices (while blaming them of being "tardy"), moments ago Reuters reported that Senators have asked the Labor Department to investigate Wells Fargo for potential violations of Fair Labor Standards Act. To be sure, now would be a perfect time for Wells Fargo's biggest shareholder, Warren Buffett - who owns a 10% stake in WFC - to speak up in defense of his favorite US bank, alas that won't happen....

Warren Buffett showed that the selloff in Wells Fargo & Co.’s stock this year has just made him love the banking giant even more, as he boosted his stake in the company to 504.3 million shares, according to regulatory filings. Buffett’s investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B, +0.01% now owns 10% of Wells Fargo’s common stock outstanding, making him by far the largest shareholder. That is up from 479.7 million shares, or a 9.45% stake, as of Dec. 31, filings show.

Elizabeth Warren unleashed a verbal barrage at Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf on Tuesday, calling the embattled bank boss "gutless" and demanding he step down. "You should resign...You should be criminally investigated," Warren told Stumpf during a fiery one-sided exchange at the Senate Banking Committee's Wells Fargo hearing. Warren, a vocal critic of big banks like Wells Fargo, demanded both the Department of Justice and SEC criminally investigate Stumpf for his "gutless leadership." Last week, a U.S. official told CNN that the DOJ has issued subpoenas to Wells Fargo.

A series of cutting animated videos blasting Wells Fargo’s sales incentives are getting a new life online in the wake of the bank settling federal regulatory probes that found its employees created more than 2 million bogus accounts — slamming customers with $2.6 million in fees — in order to meet branch quotas. “If tellers and bakers make those sales numbers at the end of the month everybody in the branch will get a $5 gift card to McDonalds,” the manager says in the video. “The district manager will get a $10,000 cash bonus, and the community banking president executive...