HENDERSON, NV – Shawn “Chef Big Shake” Davis has filed a civil action in Clark County District Court alleging a Henderson Wells Fargo branch wrongly branded his $20,400 U.S. Treasury check as fraudulent and denied him routine business banking services. The complaint names Wells Fargo Bank and business adviser David Parra at the 2531 Anthem Village Drive branch and asserts racial discrimination, defamation, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Davis says he appeared for a scheduled July 11 account-opening appointment, provided identification and documentation, watched the banker step away for about fifteen minutes, and then was told his Treasury check was fake. He characterizes the accusation as abrupt, unsupported, and tinged with the assumption that he could not legitimately receive such a payment because he is Black.
Davis, a Florida restaurateur known for hot chicken and shrimp burgers and a “Shark Tank” appearance, alleges that the treatment in Nevada was not a good-faith verification mistake but a denial of service tied to race. After returning home to Tampa, he says another Wells Fargo branch opened the business account and deposited the same Treasury check without incident, with staff confirming there is no direct line to the IRS for such inquiries and noting that the Nevada branch failed to create an account, enter internal notes, or complete legitimate work during the forty-five minute visit. His attorney, Milan Chatterjee, frames the case as an effort to spotlight what he describes as routine prejudice faced by African Americans in corporate settings. The suit seeks damages above Nevada’s jurisdictional minimum and reserves the right to pursue punitive and reputational harms as discovery develops.
