Two former auditors for Wells Fargo Bank have reached an agreement with the national bank regulator that the agency said late Friday resolves an enforcement issue over long-running sales practices misconduct first brought against the duo five years ago.
In a release, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said it had reached settlements – with much smaller civil money penalties (CMP) as proposed in 2020 – for David Julian, former chief auditor at Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., and Paul McLinko, former executive audit director at the bank.
According to Friday’s release, in consent orders, Julian agreed to a $100,000 CMP; McLinko agreed to a $50,000 CMP. Both former executives received issued personal cease and desist orders, the OCC said. The orders require both to adhere to any future bank employer’s policies and procedures, as well as to ensure their audits are independent or objective, among other things.
“These orders resolve the enforcement actions the OCC initiated against Mr. Julian and Mr. McLinko in January 2020 in connection with the Bank’s longstanding systemic sales practices misconduct, as well as the former Bank executives’ appeal of Final Decisions issued by the OCC on January 14, 2025 to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,” the OCC said.
In 2020, the agency proposed that Julian be assessed a $2 million CMP and McLinko receive a $500,000 penalty. In January, the OCC (still under direction of Acting Comptroller Michael Hsu) upped those penalties to $7 million for Julian and $1.5 million for McLinko.
Julian and McLinko appealed those CMPs to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the OCC said.
OCC Announces Settlements with Former Wells Fargo Internal Auditors
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