Wells Fargo tries to kill fake account lawsuit

Source: CNNMoney

Wells Fargo tries to kill fake account lawsuit

by Matt Egan
November 25, 2016: 1:20 PM ET

Wells Fargo may be sounding a more friendly tone these days, but the big bank is still playing legal hard ball with victims in the fake account scandal.

Wells Fargo (WFC) customers have opened a class action lawsuit against the bank over the opening of unauthorized accounts in their names.

But Wells Fargo is trying to derail that lawsuit. The bank on Wednesday asked the U.S. District Court in Utah, where the class action suit was filed, to force dozens of those customers to resolve their claims quietly in closed-door arbitration instead of open court.

Wells Fargo and other financial companies have frequently used this tactic to stop class action lawsuits. They point to the agreements customers sign that contains fine print requiring them to enter arbitration.

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Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/25/investing/wells-fargo-lawsuit-forced-arbitration/

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Source: USA Today

Wells Fargo seeks to compel arbitrations

Kevin McCoy , USA TODAY 3:21 p.m. EST November 25, 2016

Wells Fargo (WFC) has asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by scores of customers over the bank's unauthorized accounts scandal and compel them to resolve the disputes in private arbitration.

The San Francisco-based banking giant's motion, filed in Utah as the Thanksgiving holiday neared, is aimed at the first putative class-action lawsuit filed after Wells agreed to pay $185 million in penalties and $5 million in customer reimbursement for opening as many as 2 million accounts without customers' authorization. The bank also moved to dismiss the case.

Wells Fargo reached the settlement in September with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency and city and county of Los Angeles. The agreement has sparked customer anger, as well as congressional and legal investigations of the banking giant.

Wells Fargo's latest court motion is aimed at what it characterized as an "unwieldy" case that features 80 customer-plaintiffs and 17 legal causes of action against the bank.

"Plaintiffs agreed to arbitrate any disputes with Wells Fargo, including the claims they assert in this lawsuit," the bank argued in a motion and legal memorandum. "Plaintiffs are judicially estopped from arguing otherwise, as a party 'cannot rely on the contract, when it works to their advantage, and repudiate it when it works to their disadvantage.'"

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Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/11/25/wells-fargo-seeks-arbitration-scores-customers/94419028/