This may appear to be more a straight compliance piece than an information governance piece, but consider that the officers and directors didn’t know or didn’t report things that they should have known about. Truth or consequences?
“Wells Fargo Reaches Settlement In Lawsuit,” The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2018 B10. Tentative settlement in suit alleging certain “current and former officers and directors of the bank had made false statements” affecting the stock price between 2014 and 2016.
The final paragraph of the article says,
The bank said Friday that it “denies the claims and allegations in the action and entered into the agreement in principle to avoid the cost and disruption of further litigation.”
One pauses to wonder if the current shareholders agree, it being their $480 million being spent to resolve the lawsuit, not the $480 million of said certain current and former officers and directors. This is on top of the $1 billion fine paid last month. Hopefully, the current and former shareholders will get some of the $480 million, less legal fees.
Telling fibs in connection with a company’s stock price can be real expensive for some one. Not knowing about abusive sales practices is about the same as lying. And how can you deny something yet still pay $480 million? Who are they trying to fool this time? At least now they can post nice ads on TV, claiming a re-invention. Has the culture problem been fixed?
infogovnuggets 