Employees fired by Wells Fargo file lawsuit

Nearly a dozen former employees of Wells Fargo are suing the bank, claiming they were fired from their jobs for minor criminal charges that had already been disclosed when they were originally hired.

The criminal charges were in some cases decades old and in many cases had been expunged or dismissed from their records.

The criminal records came to light when Wells Fargo hired a company to conduct background checks on employees in order to comply with a 2008 federal law that barred banks and mortgage lenders from employing people convicted of crimes involving dishonesty.

But the employees who were let go by Wells Fargo argue in their lawsuit that their backgrounds didn’t bar them from employment in the industry. The employees lived in several states. The lawsuit was filed in the South Dakota District of federal court.

“Pursuant to the Backgrounds Check Project, Wells Fargo abruptly fired hundreds of exemplary employees, some of whom had worked for Wells Fargo for decades and were approaching retirement, others who had just received promotions or had bonuses forthcoming,” the lawsuit alleges.

One of them, Deanna Hobbs, received a job promotion and a 5 percent raise on the same day she was fired, according to the lawsuit. Hobbs had been hired four years earlier, and in her first background check an expunged arrest record was not located. But the second check turned up the expunged record. It took eight months for the bank to send her personal belongings, and Hobbs was unemployed for a year.

5,300 Wells Fargo workers fired for conduct; local impact not released

Kathryn Eastman had twice passed Wells Fargo’s background checks when she was fired in 2012 for the theft of a hairbrush in 1982. She had previously disclosed the incident but was told it wouldn’t affect her employment. After she was fired, the bank did not inform her that she could apply for a waiver from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which oversaw the new federal law.

Phetsamone Dary had worked for the bank for more than 10 years when he was fired for a criminal charge that had been expunged from his record. Dary had disclosed the charge when he was first hired. Dary eventually received an FDIC waiver allowing him to work in the industry, but like other former employees, he was forced to tap his retirement account in order to pay expenses, which subjected his retirement to taxes and penalties.

“Dary had 10 productive and successful years of employment, prior to being fired and escorted out the door for the same minor offense that he told Wells Fargo about 10 years earlier,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit alleges that Wells Fargo broke promises to the employees when they were told the criminal charges wouldn’t affect their employment but years later were fired for the offenses. It accuses the bank of committing fraud and deceit, violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act and of conspiracy.

“All the aforementioned acts of racketeering activity were undertaken for the common purpose of massive payroll reduction and maximization of profits at the expense of Wells Fargo’s employee workforce, by fraudulently terminating hundreds of employees and swindling them out of accrued and forthcoming employment benefits,” the lawsuit alleges.

A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo did not immediately respond. Steven Beardsley, a lawyer representing the former employees, declined to comment, saying the complaint spoke for itself.