SAN DIEGO, Sept. 26, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Robbins
Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP ("Robbins Geller")
(http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/wellsfargo/) today announced that a
class action has been commenced on behalf of purchasers of Wells
Fargo & Company ("Wells Fargo") (NYSE: WFC) common stock during
the period between February 26, 2014
and September 15, 2016 (the "Class
Period"). This action was filed in the Northern District of
California and is captioned
Hefler v. Wells Fargo &
Company, et al., No. 16-cv-05479.
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court
no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this
action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights
or interests, please contact plaintiff's counsel, Shawn A. Williams
of Robbins Geller at 800/449-4900 or 415/288-4545, or via e-mail at
shawnw@rgrdlaw.com. If you are a member of this class, you
can view a copy of the complaint as filed at
http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/wellsfargo/. Any member of the
putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff
through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and
remain an absent class member.
The complaint charges Wells Fargo and certain of its current and
former officers and/or directors with violations of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934. Wells Fargo is a diversified financial
services company that provides retail, commercial and corporate
banking services, principally in the
United States.
The Company has three reportable operating segments, Community
Banking, Wholesale Banking, and Wealth and Investment
Management. A key part of Wells Fargo's business strategy is
"cross-selling," which entails selling its existing customers more
retail products. Wells Fargo's execution on its cross-selling
opportunities was considered central to the Company's business and
growth prospects.
The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants
made materially false and misleading statements regarding the
Company's true financial condition, financial performance and
future prospects, including about the source of its growth in
products per household and the success of its overall strategy of
cross-selling its products. Specifically, throughout the
Class Period, defendants made false and misleading statements
and/or failed to disclose that Wells Fargo's cross-selling efforts
to retail customers were neither designed to meet customers'
financial needs nor drive customer satisfaction, but rather were
the product of a carefully designed system that resulted in the
Company illegally, through forgery and other electronic means,
opening millions of deposit and credit card accounts for customers
without their knowledge in an effort to generate fee income for
Wells Fargo and compensation rewards for Wells Fargo employees,
including defendants. Wells Fargo also failed to disclose
that an ongoing internal investigation had in fact determined by
the beginning of the Class Period that employees in the Community
Banking segment had engaged in a wide ranging scheme to inflate the
Company's financial performance figures by opening millions of
unauthorized deposit and credit card accounts, ultimately resulting
in more than 5,000 employee terminations. As a result of
defendants' false statements and/or omissions during the Class
Period, Wells Fargo stock traded at artificially inflated prices,
reaching a high of over $58 per share
and allowing certain of the defendants to sell more than
$31 million worth of their own Wells
Fargo stock at artificially inflated prices.
On September 8, 2016, the U.S.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") imposed a fine of
more than $185 million on Wells Fargo
and published a Consent Order detailing the Company's fraudulent
practices, which were centered on a corporate culture intent on
growing its cross-selling opportunities and unlawfully and without
its customers' consent opening millions of unauthorized deposit and
credit card accounts. In the days following the CFPB
announcement, several media outlets issued articles detailing the
scandal. The complaint alleges that as a result of these
revelations, between September 8,
2016 and September 16, 2016,
the Company's stock price declined 9%, from a close of $49.90 per share on September 8, 2016 to a close of $45.43 per share on September 16, 2016, as information about
defendants' conduct and its impact on Wells Fargo's operations
reached the market.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers
of Wells Fargo common stock during the Class Period (the
"Class"). The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller,
which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class
actions including actions involving financial fraud.
Robbins Geller is widely recognized as one of the leading law
firms advising U.S. and international institutional investors in
securities litigation and portfolio monitoring. With 200
lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the
largest securities class action recoveries in history and was
ranked first in both total amount recovered for investors and
number of securities class action recoveries in ISS's SCAS Top 50
Report for the last two years. Robbins Geller attorneys have
shaped the law in the areas of securities litigation and
shareholder rights and have recovered tens of billions of dollars
on behalf of the Firm's clients. Robbins Geller not only
secures recoveries for defrauded investors, it also strives to
implement corporate governance reforms, helping to improve the
financial markets for investors worldwide. Please visit
rgrdlaw.com/cases/wellsfargo/ for more information.
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SOURCE Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP