CEO Of Wells Fargo John Stumpf Resigns Over Fake Account Scandal (TWEET/VIDEO)

The embattled CEO of Wells Fargo, John Stumpf, has officially resigned, effective immediately. He will be replaced as CEO by Tim Sloan. Stumpf worked at Wells Fargo for 34 years, and had been its CEO since 2007. Stumpf released a statement following his resignation:

I am grateful for the opportunity to have led Wells Fargo. While I have been deeply committed and focused on managing the Company through this period, I have decided it is best for the company that I step aside.

Wells Fargo is still embroiled in scandal, as employees met outrageous quotas by creating millions of fake accounts. These fake accounts made Wells Fargo one of the richest banks in the world at the expense of nickel-and-diming customers with small, often overlooked fees.

Stumpf was brought before two different federal committees, and seemed to have little defense for the questions raised by either the House or Senate. One Senator in particular, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), was particularly critical of Stumpf during his Senate hearing, telling him:

“What have you actually done to hold yourself accountable?… You haven’t resigned, you haven’t returned a single nickel of your personal earnings, you haven’t fired a single senior executive. Instead, evidently, your definition of accountable is to push the blame to your low-level employees who don’t have the money for a fancy PR firm to defend themselves. It’s gutless leadership.”

Wells Fargo fired over 5000 employees once news of the scandal broke, but none of them were very high on the corporate ladder. Stumpf volunteered his resignation on Wednesday, and Wells Fargo’s board of directors accepted the same day.

Warren, who has often championed herself against big banks, gave Stumpf a list of things he needed to do while questioning him at the hearing:

You should resign. You should give back the money you took while this scam was going on, and you should be criminally investigated by both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission.”

After news of Stumpf’s retirement broke, Warren tweeted the following:

We will see if Warren’s other two suggestions come to fruition. You can see the video of Stumpf trying to defend himself against Warren during his Senate hearing below.

Featured Image via YouTube Video