Allegations that lofty fines owed by two former Wells Fargo executives involved in a banking scandal were reduced by more than 90% in return for their former employer's donation to the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump circulated on social media in late April and early May 2025.

The claims of alleged corruption suggested that in return for donating $1 million to the inauguration ceremony of Trump and Vice President JD Vance, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) reduced the civil penalties owed by the former execs from a combined $8.5 million to a combined $150,000.

In 2016, it came to light that Wells Fargo employees were creating fake accounts for customers who did not request them in order to boost sales numbers for products and services, resulting in major financial restitution for the bank and criminal charges against one executive. 

Claims about the fine reduction and alleged corruption spread widely on social media after the OCC's announcement, through multiple posts on Facebook (archived, archived, archived), X (archived) and Instagram (archived). 

The spread appeared to have originated with a post from Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and well-known Democrat. 

The widespread nature of the claim led to a great number of Snopes readers reaching out via email for further verification. 

Two former Wells Fargo executives were fined $8.5M by the Biden administration for covering up the bank's infamous fake account scandal.

Trump just slashed those fines to a paltry $150,000 after Wells Fargo gave $1M to his inauguration.

See how this works?

— Robert Reich (@RBReich) April 29, 2025

It is true that two former Wells Fargo employees involved in the scandal received drastic cuts in penalties owed in January 2025.

According to the OCC, former Wells Fargo chief auditor David Julian, whom the OCC originally fined a sum of $7 million, received a fine of $100,000. 

Former Wells Fargo executive audit director Paul McLinko, whom the OCC originally fined a sum of $1.5 million, received a fine of $50,000. 

The original penalties "were taken in response to the former executives' unsafe or unsound banking practices related to the bank's systemic and widespread sales practices misconduct," according to a Jan. 14, 2025, post on the OCC website.

However, in an April 25, 2025 post, the OCC revealed new settlements for the employees, which "resolve the enforcement actions the OCC initiated against Mr. Julian and Mr. McLinko in January 2020 in connection with the Bank's long-standing systemic sales practices misconduct." 

The April 2025 settlement followed "the former Bank executives' appeal of Final Decisions issued by the OCC" in January 2025.

The OCC stated it also "reached resolution with eight other former Wells Fargo senior bank executives, resulting in their payment of civil money penalties totaling $43,175,000." 

In addition, it is also true that the lobbying group Electronic Payments Coalition donated $1 million to the Trump-Vance inauguration, according to an itemized list of donations available to view on the Federal Election Commission website. (The donations are not listed in alphabetical order, but users can do a Ctrl+F search for "Electronic Payments Coalition" and find the donation listed between The Dow Chemical Company and The Geo Group Inc.) 

According to the list, EPC's donation occurred on Jan. 2, 2025. 

(Federal Election Commission)

The coalition's website lists Wells Fargo as one of its members. 

Wells Fargo has not responded to Snopes' request for comment on whether Julian and McLinko had any involvement in the EPC.

However, though both elements of the claim were true, no evidence definitively asserts that the EPC's donation to the inauguration was the reason the OCC lessened the fines for Julian and McLinko. 

Snopes attempted to reach the White House for comment on the matter via email, but it insisted, "The White House is not the right entity for this request," and suggested we reach out to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. The JCCIC's email contact for the media was no longer active and bounced back in error.

The Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal in brief

The Wells Fargo fake accounts scandal first came to light in 2016. In 2017, The Associated Press reported that "3.5 million accounts were potentially opened without customers' permission between 2009 and 2016." 

Further, the Department of Justice said in a Feb. 21, 2020, statement that announced a $3 billion fine for the bank that Wells Fargo followed "a practice between 2002 and 2016 of pressuring employees to meet unrealistic sales goals that led thousands of employees to provide millions of accounts or products to customers under false pretenses or without consent, often by creating false records or misusing customers' identities." 

In the fallout from the scandal, the bank was forced to pay out the aforementioned $3 billion in addition to $110 million in a class-action lawsuit from affected account holders, and an additional $1 billion in a class-action lawsuit from Wells Fargo shareholders. 

On Sept. 9, 2016, Wells Fargo released a statement that said in part, "Wells Fargo reached these agreements consistent with our commitment to customers and in the interest of putting this matter behind us. Wells Fargo is committed to putting our customers' interests first 100 percent of the time, and we regret and take responsibility for any instances where customers may have received a product that they did not request."

Only one executive, former head of Wells Fargo's community banking division Carrie Tolstedt, faced criminal charges in the scandal. She avoided prison by pleading guilty to obstructing a bank examination and paid $17 million to the OCC and an additional $3 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to CNN. 

The Electronic Payments Coalition

According to Cause IQ, a database for the nonprofit sector, EPC registered as a 501(c)(6) in 2015, which according to the Internal Revenue Service means it has tax-exempt status because it falls into the category of "business leagues, chambers of commerce, boards of trade, and similar organizations." 

The EPC was mentioned by name years earlier in a 2011 NPR report about lobbying against legislation seeking to shift the brunt of credit card fees away from business owners and onto banks and credit card companies. 

NPR wrote, "banks and credit unions say that if the rule goes through and they lose $12 billion a year in interchange fees, they're going to have to raise fees on consumers, slash rewards or stop issuing debit cards altogether."