Wells Fargo Places Blame For Unauthorized Account Scandal on Former Executives, CEO

The San Francisco Chronicle interviewed Stradling shareholder Jason de Bretteville, a former assistant U.S. attorney and chair of the firm’s white-collar criminal defense practice, for a story about the release by Wells Fargo of a 113 page report that concluded that the board didn’t know anything and that the blame for the scandal rests on former CEO John Stumpf and former executive Carrie Tolstedt. According to the report, the inquiry was conducted by a four-director committee, advised by Shearman & Sterling. A Shearman partner is also defending those same four directors in a shareholder lawsuit. According to de Bretteville, “in general, regulators and prosecutors view such company investigations with a “heavy dose of skepticism” because of these conflicting interests.”