Gary Cameron/Reuters
Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday tore into Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf during his Tuesday afternoon appearance before a Senate committee hearing on the bank’s controversial account-opening practices. Warren, a fierce critic of the big U.S. banks, called on Stumpf to resign and be “criminally investigated” for the company’s millions of fake accounts created over several years and firing of 5,300 employees. “You haven’t resigned. You haven’t returned a single nickel of your personal earnings. You haven’t fired a single senior executive,” the Massachusetts Democrat unleashed. “Instead, evidently, your definition of ‘accountable’ is to push the blame to your low-level employees who don’t have the money for a fancy PR firm to defend themselves. It’s gutless leadership.”
Although Stumpf has apologized for the scandal and admitted the bank failed to adequately stop the improper actions, Warren suggested he be held criminally liable: “You should give back the money that you took while this scam was going on and you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. This just isn’t right. A cashier who steals a handful of $20s is held accountable. But Wall Street executives almost never hold themselves accountable.”