For These Crimes They Are Guilty: It’s Time to Move Your Money From Wells Fargo

Since the Wall Street banks nearly destroyed the American and global financial system in 2008, families and consumers of all walks of life have found themselves working harder than ever before. The collapse of the economy has taken a toll on so many levels of our daily lives – our communities, retirement funds, consumer culture, the way we view our government, basic lifestyle needs, our hope as a democracy.

Countless individuals and families are still struggling for basic necessities like decent-paying work, affordable education, the ability to pay rent and mortgage, and the security of putting food on the table for their families. Mainstream news outlets aren’t very interested in reporting on the billions of dollars in settlements the biggest banks have been paying on a regular basis to the Department of Justice – perhaps because those outlets offer primarily entertainment news rather than actual journalism, and therefore fail to focus on stories affecting the lives of everyday Americans.

However, some powerful grassroots movements like Move Your Money have manifested and energized people, connecting and organizing communities over the past few years via social media. This has been empowering us to tell our collective stories and discover our like-minded ideals for justice in the fight against the big banks.

One of the primary focuses of our activism and advocacy is the place we call home: the very shelter we live in, raise our families in, create rituals, share stories, and plan for the future. Our homes are our sanctuary. And since 2008, this fundamental part of our society has been threatened, taken, diminished or stolen outright from under us.

In speaking truth to a corruption that is beyond Too Big To Fail, we have collectively come together and taken concrete action by Moving Our Money – sending a clear message to the banks that We the People will no longer tolerate the fraud, lawlessness, empty settlement deals with our government, rigged economic rules, and tremendous losses we have been made to endure via the criminal unethical practices of Chase, Citi, Bank of America, US Bank and Wells Fargo Bank. We will be implementing targeted protests, activities, social media campaigns and outreach to enlighten and engage as many people as we can in the Move Your Money campaign.

The only way the big banks will feel something similar to the loss and harm they caused is if regular people Move Your Money from those institutions to second tier banks, community banks and credit unions. Our focus currently is to illustrate the many patterns of fraudulent trade practices and consumer abuse patterns perpetrated by Wells Fargo Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.

Over the last seven years many criminal activities have come to light in regard to wrongful foreclosures, based on evidence exposed by “60 Minutes” and other broadcasts and articles. Below are some examples of unfair trade practices and other unethical and illegal activities conducted by Wells Fargo Bank:

• Forgery aka “Robo-signing”

• Falsifying documents to expedite foreclosures

• Harassment

• Failure to close customer accounts

• Excessive fees and late fee charges

• Opening unauthorized accounts in clients names

• Manufacturing documents such as Mortgage Notes in court

• Instructing borrowers to default in order to receive assistance and/or qualification for a loan modification

• Accounting control fraud

• Stating that submitted documents have been lost

• Insurance fraud

• Defrauding Investors

• Violating TILA and RESPA laws

• Violations of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act

• Defrauding the government

• Violating Mortgage Trusts and Servicing agreements

• Failure to modify “Pick a Pay” and interest only loans in California

• Dual Tracking of homeowners

• Forced Escrow accounts

• Inflated Appraisals and blackballing appraisers for not coming in within the margin the bank demanded

• Creating and implementing a Foreclosure Manual for attorney firms to follow in order to fast track foreclosures and/or manufacture necessary documents not in the files

• Largest investors in the for-profit prison industry

• Modifying home loans and then transferring the loan to another entity, such as Ocwen, which then fails to honor the modification

• Pushing homeowners into short sales and foreclosure based on lies and fabricated information

• Violating laws in the California Homeowner Bill of Rights

• Foreclosing on families based on a typing error or late payment

• Failure to comply with HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program) guidelines agreed to by the banks to assist struggling homeowners to stay in their homes.

• Collecting insurance, fees and charges based on the consumer’s loss, along with predatory lending practices

• Ongoing damage to consumer credit ratings due to abusive serving and detrimental information to borrowers

• Foreclosing illegally without clear title and/or bifurcated title, therefore without standing to prove the debt

• Clogging the court systems across the country in order to drain consumers of their monetary means to defend their homes

• Promissory Estoppel

• Falsification of title and land records

• Foreclosing on military families and US soldiers while they’re overseas

The above list outlines just a few of the harmful and unlawful practices that appear to be business as usual for Wells Fargo. Our intent is to create more widespread awareness and information sharing so that we can better assist working people to choose where they do business, who they trust to bank with, and how to serve their own best interest and the greater good by banking ethically with an institution that helps the community rather than sucks the life out of it.

Collectively our voices will be more loudly and clearly heard by our actions and our campaign for change that only We the People can deliver. We hope you will join us sharing the information with others as you Move Your Money from Wells Fargo and the big banks that have driven our economy, our communities and our judicial system to its knees.

We ask that when you close accounts, state the reasons why you’re doing so from the list above – or give your own. Tell them why you no longer wish to do business with a bank that refuses to work with families and programs to keep people in their homes and to stop the ongoing consumer abuses once and for all.

In solidarity, #MoveYourMoney.