A special section of the US Department of Labor website that set up to facilitate the flow of information between Labor and Wells Fargo employees and customers has been removed. Former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez created the section of the site last fall to field complaints about Wells Fargo from the public. Wells Fargo admitted to creating nearly 2 million fake accounts with customer data, a massive scam that billionaire investor Warren Buffett called a “terrible mistake.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, in grilling former CEO John Stumpf, called it much worse. Wells Fargo was fined $185 million.
Warren was concerned enough about the website’s disappearance to send a letter to acting Labor Secretary Edward Hugler about the site. Recently Wells Fargo itself admitted that there may have been retaliation by the bank’s management against employee whistleblowers — the kind of actions the website was set up to discover and assess. Warren’s letter reportedly said “Taking down this website enables Wells Fargo to escape full responsibility for its fraudulent actions and the Department to shirk its outstanding obligations to American workers.” She asked whether it would be put back.
