The Labor Department ordered Wells Fargo to pay more than $22 million after ruling that the company retaliated against an executive who alleged financial misconduct.
According to a Thursday release, the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found that Wells Fargo violated whistleblower protection laws for "improperly terminating" an unnamed senior manager.
The Chicago area-based manager, who worked in commercial banking at Wells Fargo, was fired after voicing repeated concerns about what they believed to be violations of financial law – including allegations of wire fraud, price fixing and being instructed to falsify customer information, the Labor Department said.
"Even though the manager believed the conduct was illegal based on company-required training, they were terminated in 2019," the Labor Department wrote – adding that Wells Fargo later claimed the executive was fired "as part of a restructuring process."
Investigators later found that this termination "was not consistent" with that of other managers removed at the time, the Labor Department said. Alleging retaliation and violation of whistleblower protections under federal the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the executive then filed a complaint with OSHA.
In a statement sent to USA TODAY on Friday, Wells Fargo said the company disagrees with OSHA's findings, "which were not based on an evidentiary hearing."
"We intend to appeal to an Administrative Law Judge," the company said in an emailed statement....
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