Wells Fargo Fraud

This is a cautionary tale of how corporate crime can cause severe harm. The shareholders were prevented by those perpetuating the fraud from selling while the stock was falling, while at the same time they moved their money out of the company. The final outcome was that the perpetrators being Jeff Schilling CEO, Ken Lay, and chief financial officer Andrew Fastow each received hefty sentences. According to CNN, Skilling was originally sentenced to 24 years, the longest sentence of any Enron perpetrator, and has been incarcerated in the federal prison system since his 2006 conviction. He had been facing a release date of Feb. 21, 2028,” (Smith). Ken Lay died before he could be sentenced and Andrew Fastow was released early as a result of a plea

According to Fortune, “Executives sought to drive growth by putting undue pressure on its employees to hit sales quotas, and many employees responded by fraudulently opening customer accounts. In most cases these accounts were closed before customers noticed, but in other cases consumers were hit with associated fees or took hits to their credit ratings. The bank was forced to return $2.6 million in ill-gotten fees and pay $186 million in fines to the government. But the biggest hit Wells Fargo will take is to its reputation, as the media and government officials spent much of the year slamming the bank for its fraud,” (Mathews). The victims being the unknowing customers who saw their credit ratings plummet and faced steep financial fees, that were brought about through no fault of their own. The final result being the CEO was forced to step down due to unfair business

Per, Fortune, “The American consumer is no stranger to steep price hikes on drugs. But few increases drew outrage like drug company Mylan’s decision to raise the price of its EpiPen. The device, which administers epinephrine, a crucial antidote for those suffering anaphylactic shock due to allergic reactions, is beloved by parents of the 1 in 13 children that suffer from food allergies in America. But Mylan has increased its price by 400% since acquiring the device in 2007. Many American families, especially those with high-deductible health insurance, struggle to afford the $500 sticker price for the life-saving drug. And with Mylan controlling a near-monopoly on such products, consumers were stuck between a rock and a hard place,” (Smith). The clear loser here is the consumer of these lifesaving drugs paying $500 dollars for medication that cost $0.65 to make. Heather Bresch, has faced very little personal repercussions for this misconduct outside of having her degree rescinded, the company settled out of court with the Federal government and paid a hefty