What did Wells Fargo do? Exploring accusations of fake interviews

Wells Fargo is accused of scheduling mock interviews with black female candidates for posts already filled. According to a former employee, this was done to bolster the bank's diversity numbers.

Seven current and former employees, including one former CEO, said they were told to interview women and people of color for positions already filled.

According to three current Wells Fargo workers, the interviews were conducted as recently as this year.

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Alleged fake interviews with people of color by Wells Fargo to showcase the diversity

A former Wells Fargo wealth management executive, Joe Bruno, alleges he was fired in August after informing his managers about the bank's alleged "false interviews," which he called "inappropriate, morally wrong, and ethically wrong."

Bruno claims that despite the fact that he or his superiors had already chosen someone for the lower-paying financial adviser and financial consultant roles, he was told to conduct interviews with black individuals.

Bruno stated that he declined to perform the interviews at one point, telling his superiors:

'I got a black person on the other side of the table who has no shot at getting the job,'

According to the employees, who requested anonymity, the interviews were a ruse to improve the bank's diversity efforts ahead of possible regulatory audits.

However, following the assassination of George Floyd in June 2020, CEO Charles W. Scharafter promised to improve diversity two years ago.

The bank established a formal policy requiring diverse candidates to be interviewed for any available positions paying more than $100,000 per year.

Barry Sommers, the chief executive of Wells Fargo's wealth and investment management business, stated that fake interviews would not be necessary for the financial consultant position as the role's salary is less than $100,000.

"There is absolutely no reason why anyone would conduct a fake interview."

Raschelle Burton, a spokesperson for Wells Fargo, also denied the fake interview claims.

"To the extent that individual employees are engaging in the behavior as described by The New York Times, we do not tolerate it."

However, Burton claims that the bank hired nearly 26,000 people in 2020, with 77 percent of them not being white men, and that 81 percent of the 30,000 new hires in 2021 were not white men.

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In August 2020, the bank agreed to pay a $8 million settlement to the Department of Labor for allegedly discriminating against over 30,000 black applicants for banking, sales, and support positions.

Prior to that, in 2017, the bank was forced to settle a racial discrimination class action suit, paying $36 million to 320 black financial advisors who claimed they were barred from gaining new clients or forming partnerships with white financial advisors.

The allegations will further tarnish the bank's reputation, which has already been damaged by the federal government's $4.5 billion fine for its phoney accounts scandal.