When Wells Fargo isn’t building golden parachutes for their CEOs to jump with, they are facing tons of blowback from real people and real representatives. Seattle’s City Council voted to divest $3 billion from Wells Fargo earlier this month and now California’s Alameda city council has taken that first step.
The City Council voted unanimously early Wednesday morning to immediately refrain from investing in the bank’s securities and told city officials to begin the process of securing a new bank.
In both cases, the city councils voted as a protest of the big bank’s involvement in with the Dakota Access pipeline. It is also a moral statement says city officials.
“If there is bad behavior and we do nothing about it, then we are passively condoning it,” said Vice Mayor Malia Vella, who, along with Councilman Jim Oddie, put the city’s involvement with Wells Fargo on the council’s agenda.
Whether it’s private prisons, oil and gas pipelines, or just perpetrating plain old-fashioned fraud, Wells Fargo has not earned any public trust.