Wells Fargo bank has paid a settlement of $24 million after being accused of improperly repossessing the cars of hundreds of members of the U.S. armed forces serving overseas.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Wells Fargo illegally repossessed the cars from 2008 to 2015. The issue first came to light when an Army National Guardsman in North Carolina said the bank seized his car while he was deployed to Afghanistan.
In that case the automobile was auctioned off and then the bank went after the soldier’s family to pay off the additional $10,000 on the car loan.
The actions were repeated up to 413 times in other cases, the federal government charged.
“The bank was fined $20 million more by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for breaking three provisions of the same law by denying members of the military certain banking protections, including capping their interest rates at 6%,” Fox News reported.
Wells Fargo apologized for the repossessions saying, “We have been notifying and fully compensating customers and will complete this work in 60 days.”
The settlement comes on the heels of a massive $185 million fine levied against the bank after employees were found illicitly creating shadow accounts without customers’ permission and then illegally charging the customers fees for the accounts.
The bank has been a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton, having given up to $250,000 to the Clinton campaign.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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