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Warren And Sanders Going After Auditing Firm In Wells Fargo Scandal

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Robert Donachie Capitol Hill and Health Care Reporter
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Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren was an integral player in CEO John Stumpf’s exit from Wells Fargo, but apparently that wasn’t enough: She now wants a whack at KPMG, the accounting firm that audited Wells Fargo.

Warren, along with Democratic Sens. Bernie Sanders, Mazie Hirono and Edward Markey, sent a letter to KPMG Thursday inquiring why the bank failed to uncover the fraudulent sales practices that led to opening 2 million bank accounts without customer consent.

Warren thrashes the so-called big four auditing firm, “none of KPMG’s audits identified any concerns with illegal behavior that resulted in the creation of over two million unauthorized accounts by thousands of employees and that ultimately resulted in the resignation of Wells Fargo’s CEO and a decline in the company’s stock price of more than 10% in the days after the settlement with federal regulators. In fact, in each of your audits, your firm concluded that Wells Fargo ‘maintained … effective internal control over financial reporting.'”

The senators posed questions to the chairman and CEO of KPMG, Lynne Doughtie, to ascertain the level of knowledge the auditing firm had regarding the scandal, and if any Wells Fargo employees knowingly misled any KPMG employee during routine audits.

“We have received the letter and are currently reviewing it. We are confident in our work and look forward to responding,” said Manuel Goncalves, a KPMG spokesman, the New York Post reports.

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