Congressional follow-up reveals extent of Wells Fargo scandal in Minnesota

Wells has changed its sales practices, and called tens of millions of customers to check on whether they truly opened the accounts in question.

Tolstedt declined to be interviewed for the board's investigation, which included reviews of 35 million documents and interviews with more than 100 current and former Wells Fargo employees.

Ellison also asked how many employees submitted formal complaints about the perverse sales incentives, and how many of them got fired for doing so. Tolstedt, who ran the community bank - Wells Fargo's term for the branch network - was told to fix the problem that she had created.

But, like other warnings, this 2004 report fell on deaf ears inside Wells Fargo. Along with the millions clawed back from other executives earlier this year, the roughly $180 million in clawbacks are among the largest in US corporate history.

"The steps that we were taking were having a positive impact, but again in hindsight we should have moved faster", Sloan said.

Her department saw itself as a "sales organization, like department or retail stores, rather than a service-oriented financial institution", the report said.

Stumpf did not immediately respond to a request for comment through his attorney.

Wells Fargo had agreed September 8 to pay a combined $185 million in fines to resolve regulatory complaints about 1.5 million potentially fraudulent customer checking and 623,000 credit-card accounts. In its report, the board found that Stumpf was also unwilling to change Wells' business model when problems arose.

California and Arizona had a "considerably higher" number of such accounts per employee compared with other areas of the country where the bank operates, the report said.

However, it wasn't until December 2004 that Tolstedt was provided a memorandum on the task force's work and even then a detailed content of the report was not "conveyed" in the memo.

"The board has total confidence in management, and while this investigation has concluded, our oversight of the company and commitment to accountability are stronger than ever", the board said. "If they're on their own, anyone who says anything is a whistleblower - and they already dumped some whistleblowers".

Six of Wells Fargo's 15 board members, including all of those who served on bank's risk committee, should not be re-elected, according to Glass Lewis, which advises shareholders on governance matters. "Thousands of Wells Fargo's employees and officers engaged in serious criminal conduct ripping off millions of customers over many years", he said.

The bank fired many low-ranking employees for opening the fake accounts.

The fraudulent account scandal at Wells Fargo has been making national headlines for months, with no end in sight.

"In his two earlier positions, Sloan had little contact with sales practice matters".

Dennis Kelleher, CEO of Better Markets, called the board's investigation and actions "grossly deficient", urging shareholders to vote against all of the directors at the shareholder meeting.

The board has now taken back about $180 million in compensation from senior executives and terminated Tolstedt and four other community bank leaders over the scandal. In September, the bank previously rescinded $19 million in unvested stock awards for Tolstedt.

Reeling from the scandal and public pressure, the company also split the roles of chairman and CEO.

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE:WFC) stock in mid-day trading session reduced -1.28% to $53.84. "But I can promise that we are going to learn from these mistakes that are right there in black and white in this very exhaustive and thorough board report, and we're not going to let those mistakes happen again". "I think they should have given up a significant amount of pay as well, but they don't seem to be inclined" to do that, he said.