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California State Treasurer Suspends Wells Fargo Business Deals

Accuses the bank of “wanton greed.”

California State Treasurer John Chiang announced Wednesday that he will suspend San Francisco-based bank Wells Fargo from business relationships worth billions for one year due to ongoing controversy surrounding its account-opening practices. Wells Fargo engaged in “wanton greed” and a “reckless lack of institutional control,” Chiang wrote in a statement. He called the scandal of the company opening millions of fake accounts a “legal and ethical outrage.” The bank, for its part, agreed to pay $185 million to settle the allegations that they opened such accounts without customers’ permission in order to reach their sales goals.