The former head of Wells Fargo’s community bank who pleaded guilty to obstructing justice regarding her role in the bank’s infamous fake accounts scandal will not serve prison time.
Carrie Tolstedt was sentenced Friday to three years of probation and six months of home confinement. She must also pay a $100,000 fine. Her sentencing was handed down by U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton for the Central District of California.
Tolstedt pleaded guilty in March to obstructing an examination by the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) into the bank’s sales practices misconduct. The OCC separately fined her $17 million for her actions and banned her from the banking industry.
Tolstedt was found to be aware of the bank’s long-running misconduct driven by excessive sales goals. She obstructed the OCC’s examination by “failing to disclose statistics on the number of employees who were terminated or resigned pending investigation for sales practices misconduct,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) said. “She also failed to disclose that the community bank proactively investigated only a very small percentage of employees who engaged in activity flagged as potential sales practices misconduct.”
The plea agreement Tolstedt reached called for up to 16 months in prison. She is the only executive in the fallout from the scandal who has faced criminal charges.
Wells Fargo agreed to pay $3 billion in February 2020 as part of settlements with the DOJ and Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the scandal.
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