Navajo Nation sues Wells, alleging predatory tactics

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation is suing Wells Fargo for allegedly engaging in predatory and unlawful banking practices that targeted and harmed tribal members.

In a statement, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said Tuesday that the tribe’s lawyer has been directed to seek restitution, damages and civil penalties based on the San Francisco bank’s alleged violations of federal, state and tribal law.

The tribe alleges that employees at Wells Fargo branches on the vast reservation “routinely misled customers into opening unnecessary accounts and obtained debit and credit cards without customers’ consent.” They also allege Navajo elders “were purposely confused and deceived into purchasing products to help employees meet banking quotas.”

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in New Mexico, said “since at least 2009 and continuing through 2016, Wells Fargo employees at branches on the Navajo Nation routinely opened unauthorized savings and credit accounts, misled customers into opening unnecessary accounts, obtained debit cards without customers’ consent, and enrolled customers in online banking without proper consent.”

The suit alleges Wells Fargo employees told elderly Navajo citizens who didn’t speak English that in order to have their checks cashed, they needed to sign up for savings accounts they neither needed nor understood.

The tribe also alleges Wells Fargo representatives stalked basketball games and flea markets to sign up consumers for unnecessary accounts and “opened accounts for underage Navajo citizens, going so far as to falsify birthdates to avoid obtaining necessary parental consent.”

Wells Fargo said it had received the tribe’s lawsuit, but declined comment about ongoing litigation.

Wells Fargo has five bank branches across the Navajo Nation — which covers more than 27,000 square miles over portions of northeastern Arizona, southeastern Utah and northwestern New Mexico — plus 12 others within a 30-minute drive of the reservation.

Last year, U.S. and California regulators fined Wells Fargo $185 million, saying bank employees trying to meet sales targets opened up to 2 million fake deposit and credit card accounts without customers’ knowledge.

Regulators said they issued and activated debit cards, and signed people up for online banking without permission. The abuses are said to have gone on for years, unchecked by senior management.