By Heather Wilson
WELLS FARGO SHAREHOLDERS PLAN FORMAL COMPLAINT & DAY OF ACTION TO PROTEST DENIED ACCESS AT ANNUAL MEETING
Wells Fargo denied legal right of access to their annual shareholder meeting on April 24th in unprecedented move to ignore criticism. Shareholders call for inquiry from AG Biden and SEC
In response to an unprecedented move by Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf that denied community shareholders access to the corporation’s annual shareholder meeting in April, shareholders plan to file complaints with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Delaware Attorney General on Tuesday May 8th calling for full investigation into the actions of the bank which caused the shareholder disenfranchisement. A series of actions at Wells Fargo branches in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Portland and Kansas City will accompany the complaint filing. A link to the complaint letter can be found by clicking.
All events will take place on Tuesday, May 8. Times listed are local.
SAN FRANCISCO Time: 12pm
Location: Wells Fargo Headquarters, 420 Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94163
PHILADELPHIA Time: 12pm
Location: Wells Fargo, 1500 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102
MINNEAPOLIS Time 12:45pm
Location Wells Fargo Center (Regional Headquarters), Marquette Ave S. and 6th St. S., Minneapolis, MN
PORTLAND Time: 1:15pm
Location: Wells Fargo Bank, 3625 Southeast 39th Avenue, Portland, OR 97202
Wells Fargo denied community shareholders access to the corporation’s annual shareholder meeting rather than answer questions posed by community-member shareholders attending the meeting to hold the corporation accountable for its destructive business practices that profit from communities’ losses. Outside the meeting, thousands of people gathered in downtown San Francisco, to confront Wells Fargo executives at the financial institution’s annual shareholder meeting, demanding that Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf and other executives address the concerns of the 99%.
“Wells Fargo’s actions at their shareholder meeting demonstrate what communities across this country have been experiencing for years: Wells Fargo is indifferent to the havoc they are wreaking in our communities and they do not want to be held accountable,” said Reverend Geoffrey Nelson Blake of the San Francisco Organizing Project, a Wells Fargo shareholder.
‘“They foreclosed on me after I was diagnosed with breast cancer. They illegally barred me from this meeting instead of facing my story. This is the same shameful story,” said Ana Casas Wilson.
“I am so disappointed that they kept shareholders out of the meeting. Wells Fargo broke the law and showed their disdain for real input from the community,” said Sheronda Orridge of St. Paul, Minnesota
Community Shareholders will be visiting Wells Fargo branches across the state of California to deliver the grievance letter and continue to call for Wells Fargo to end practices that profit from community losses, including foreclosure, predatory lending, tax dodging, and investment in private prisons. The groups are demanding that the bank halt foreclosure pending investigation and reform, help homeowners by resetting post-bubble mortgages to their fair market values, divest from private prisons and immigrant detention centers, pays its fair share of federal taxes, and end predatory lending practices to individuals and municipalities.
Tuesday’s actions come the day before Bank of America’s shareholders meeting, and in a season of several significant protests at Fortune 100 shareholder meetings nationwide.
Groups working on disparate issues are finding common ground and a common culprit in Wells Fargo in response to corporate America’s continued profiteering and excess in the ongoing financial crisis it helped to create. Groups travelling from many cities have been active recently in a variety of efforts to confront Wells Fargo, including home defenses to resist eviction, tax protests, and direct actions delivering demands directly to Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf, members of the board of directors and other executives.
