To settle bid-rigging case, Wells Fargo will pay $148.2 million
Wells Fargo will pay $148.2 million to settle federal and state charges that it rigged dozens of bidding competitions to win business from cities and counties.
The U.S. Department of Justice, along with federal and state regulators, had been investigating the actions of employees at Charlotte, N.C.-based Wachovia Bank, which Wells Fargo & Co. acquired in 2008.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Wachovia generated millions of dollars in illicit gains during an eight-year period when it fraudulently rigged at least 58 municipal bond transactions in 25 states and Puerto Rico.
Edie Cartwright, a spokeswoman with the state attorney general's office in Carson City, said it appears that "qualifying Nevada entities" would be eligible to share an estimated total of $117,792.
Cartwright said the amount is low compared with the total settlement amount because Nevada entities did not have great exposure to Wachovia's claimed wrongdoing with municipal bond derivatives.
"Wachovia won bids by playing an elaborate game of 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours,' rather than engaging in legitimate competition to win municipalities' business," said Robert Khuzami, director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement.
