When Wells Fargo executive Carrie Tolstedt retires at the end of this year, she will get a payout of $124.6 million in stock options and bonuses even though employees in the unit she headed opened almost 2 million fraudulent checking and credit card accounts since 2011.
The practice of opening new accounts without authorization is known as sandbagging, and it costs each account holder up to $50 in fines, according to the New York Daily News. The practice was first discovered around 2011, and 5,300 employees have been fired since then for opening fraudulent accounts in an effort to meet sales quotas. On Thursday, Wells Fargo was fined $185 million by various regulators for the fraudulent accounts.
Tolstedt, 56, has headed up the community banking division since 2008. She cited “personal reasons” for her retirement, and there is no evidence that Tolstedt personally knew about the fraud. Tolstedt has not been named personally in any lawsuits or actions filed against Wells Fargo.
If it is found that Tolstedt had knowledge or involvement in the fraud, she could be forced to forfeit up to $45 million of her retirement package or even more because of Wells Fargo’s clawback policies, which were designed to help defray the cost of huge fines. Fortune reported, however, that Wells Fargo has not indicated an intention to ask for any part of the $125 million back.
Tolstedt’s annual base salary is $1.7 million per year, and she made more than $9 million total last year with bonuses and stock options. Tolstedt was regularly listed as one of Fortune’s most powerful women. CNN Money reported that Wells Fargo is backing away from its sales quota practices in the wake of the scandal.
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