The indictment:
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/cae/press_releases/docs/2007/10-18-07CarmichaelInd.pdf

FIVE INDICTED IN WELLS FARGO CHECK CASHING SCHEME
SACRAMENTO -- United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced today that a federal grand jury returned an eight count indictment charging JASMINE CHANEL CARMICHAEL, 21, JASMINE NICOLE BUTTS, 23, EBONY CROMWELL, age unknown, DARCELL EPPS, 20, and TIFFANY CHARANADA PIPPINS, 20, with Conspiracy to Commit Bank Fraud, Bank Fraud, and Aggravated Identity Theft.

...the defendants engaged in a coordinated scheme to steal account information from Wells Fargo customers. Using that information, the coconspirators called Wells Fargo Customer Service and changed the contact information on those accounts to a phone number controlled by one of the conspirators. The co-conspirators would then prepare checks with the stolen information for amounts ranging from $2,000 to $7,500. Ms. BUTTS would drive Ms. CARMICHAEL, Ms. PIPPINS, Ms. CROMWELL, or Mr. EPPS to various Wells Fargo branches in Roseville and Rocklin, as well as the Bay Area and Reno, Nevada, and give them forged checks to be cashed. Ms. BUTTS and Ms. CROMWELL also traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada to cash
forged checks. When presented with the checks, Wells Fargo called the account holder to confirm its validity. A co-conspirator would receive the call and authorize payment. The proceeds of the fraudulently cashed check would be shared among all parties.

The maximum statutory penalty for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344, Bank Fraud, is 30 years confinement, a $1,000,000 fine, or both confinement and a fine, and five years of supervised release. In addition, the Aggravated Identity Theft, 18 U.S.C. § 1028A, is punishable by a mandatory two year sentence, consecutive to any other sentence that might be given, as well as a $250,000 fine, or both a fine and sentence, and a one year term of supervised release. However, the actual sentence will be dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and will be imposed at the discretion of the court.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/08/BAK3140UKR.DTL

5 convicted in Wells Fargo check forgeries


Five defendants have been convicted for their roles in a scheme in which Wells Fargo Bank was defrauded of $200,000 with the help of a bank employee who forged checks after changing the contact information of customers, authorities said.

The group was able to cash fraudulent checks drawn from a dozen customer accounts at Wells Fargo branches in the Bay Area, Sacramento and Las Vegas.

Convicted in the case were Jasmine Nicole Butts, 23, of Daly City, Jasmine Chanel Carmichael, 21, of San Francisco, Ebony Cromwell, 23, of Vallejo, Tiffany Charanda Pippins, 20, of Oakland, and Darcell Epps, 20, of San Francisco.

Each of the five pleaded guilty in separate hearings over the past five months before U.S. District Judge Morris England Jr. in Sacramento. Butts and Carmichael have each been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. Pippins and Cromwell were each sentenced to one month in prison and three months of home detention. Epps is to be sentenced by England on Nov. 20.
RE-READ THE LAST PARAGRAPH OF THE ABOVE QUOTE. BTW: THE JUDGE IS A NIGGER:
http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=2944

The fraud began in May 2007, when an "inside source" at Wells Fargo Bank gathered the names and account numbers of "high-value" bank customers who were capable of absorbing "a several thousand dollar hit to their bank accounts," Reardon wrote.

The employee, who wasn't identified, then changed the customer contact information to telephone numbers that were controlled by the defendants.

Using the stolen names and account information, the insider then created fake and forged checks in the customers' names drawn on their Wells Fargo accounts.

These checks were given to Butts, who then contacted either Pippins, Cromwell, Carmichael or Epps and asked them to cash the checks at Wells Fargo banks in Lafayette, Union City, Roseville, Loomis and Sacramento. Fraudulent checks were also cashed in Reno, Henderson and Las Vegas, Nevada.

In most cases, before entering the bank, the check-casher was given a fraudulent and forged check in their name that was drawn upon the account of a person identified by the Wells Fargo insider.

The check had a forged signature purporting to be from the account holder. When Wells Fargo tellers made telephone calls to verify that the checks made payable to the defendant were properly issued, a person working with the group - and not the true account holder -received the call.

The new contact person, unlawfully representing himself or herself as the account holder, then authorized payment to the check-casher. After receiving this bogus approval from the person posing as the account holder, Wells Fargo employees cashed the checks and delivered the amount on the face of the checks to the person who presented it.

That person then left the bank and met with Butts, who was waiting near the Wells Fargo branch location. Most of the money was delivered to Butts and a second person with a portion of the money going to the person cashing the check.

https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/diversity/past_present_future/diversepresent

Diversity at Wells Fargo Today

Today, Wells Fargo has 150,000 diverse Team Members working
across diverse business lines and geographies.


From senior managers to tellers, 61% of our Team Members are women, and 33% of our Team Members are minorities. While these numbers are positive, we are always working to increase our diversity.

Team Member Roles % Women % Minority
Officers and Managers 51.56% 22.54%
Professionals 55.16% 21.63%
Technicians 31.53% 26.22%
Sales Workers 39.74% 20.49%
Office and Clerical 68.89% 40.26%
Operations 46.43% 25.64%
Overall 60.83% 33.15%

Creating an Inclusive Environment
Here are some of the ways we are working to make Wells Fargo a more inclusive environment:

* Team Members. We hire and retain team members who are diverse in age, education, ethnic origin, lifestyle, ability, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

* Corporate Diversity Council. Members from every business line advise Wells Fargo's diversity staff and executive management committee on policy, program, culture, and leadership best practices.

* Business Line Diversity Councils. More than 50 Business Line Diversity Councils advise managers on policy, program, culture, and leadership best practices.

* Team Member Resource Groups. Wells Fargo has more than 70 Team Member Resource Groups, devoted to professional growth and education, community outreach, recruiting and retention, and customer insight. Groups include:
o Amigos (Hispanic)
o Arab Americans
o Persian Americans
o Asian Connection
o CheckPoint (African American)
o Employees with DisAbilities
o Native Peoples
o PRIDE (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender)

https://www.wellsfargo.com/about/diversity/importance/

Importance of Diversity

By making diversity a competitive advantage, we can:

* Make Wells Fargo a better place to work
* Better understand our diverse customers' needs
* Give customers and communities outstanding service
* Deliver more value to our stockholders


Diverse Growth Segments Group
The Diverse Growth Segments group creates and executes business strategies so we can earn more business from, among others, our Latino, Asian American, African American, and Native American communities.

For example, Wells Fargo was the first major financial services company in the U.S. to accept the Matricula card, a primary form of identification for Mexican nationals to open bank accounts — helping Mexican nationals reduce the risks associated with a cash economy.

Corporate Diversity Council
The Diversity Council, a cross-section of Team Members, makes recommendations to managers and helps ensure we're making measurable progress in:

* Diversity education
* Recruiting and placement efforts of diverse Team Members
* Building a senior management team inclusive of people of color, women, and other diverse groups


We have more than 50 Business Line Diversity Councils that further advise managers of their teams on diversity policy, programs, culture and leadership best practices.

Six Steps to Diversity

Diversity is a journey

Every Wells Fargo business line has set diversity objectives and measures success with:

* Hiring and retaining diverse Team Members
* Serving diverse customers
* Partnering with diverse communities


Six Steps to Diversity
We’ve identified six strategic steps for becoming a more diverse company:

1. Executive management team takes responsibility for diversity.
We hold ourselves and others accountable.

2. People from diverse backgrounds are in all levels of management.
Managers are accountable for attracting diverse candidates and for developing and retaining a diverse leadership pipeline. We want managers to consider diverse candidates for every open position at Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo has a plan for increasing diversity in senior management.

3. We have long-term relationships with diverse communities.
We use targeted marketing and advertising to build awareness of the products and services we tailor to respond to their needs.

4. We contribute to the diverse communities in which we live and work.
We have a supplier-diversity program, our corporate giving benefits diverse communities, and we partner with many national and community-based groups.

5. Diversity pervades all of our company communications.
Our Web sites, our company magazine (Connections), our Annual Report, and our marketing materials.

6. We're known as a diverse company.
Job candidates, customers, vendors and stockholders seek out Wells Fargo because of our diverse reputation. Our Team Members have avenues to voice their opinions on how Wells Fargo can be more inclusive.

Learn more about our business case for diversity.

Wells Fargo is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer, M/F/D/V