‘Shark Tank’ Chef Sues Wells Fargo Over Alleged Racial Bias At Nevada Branch Involving A Treasury Check

From a legal-process standpoint, this is an early-stage complaint and no facts have been adjudicated. Expect threshold maneuvering that could include removal to federal court, given the likely presence of federal civil-rights claims under 42 U.S.C. §1981 alongside state-law torts. Section 1981 protects the right to make and enforce contracts free from racial discrimination; in banking, denying or degrading standard account-opening or deposit services can implicate that contractual right.

The plaintiff bears the initial burden to show intentional discrimination; the bank may respond with a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason such as documented fraud-risk triggers or policy constraints; the ultimate burden returns to the plaintiff to prove pretext by a preponderance of the evidence.

The defamation claim focuses on the reputational sting of accusing a customer of attempting to pass a fraudulent check, which can constitute defamation per se if published to third parties in a business setting, though banks often assert qualified privileges for internal investigations. Negligence will turn on whether staff deviated from reasonable verification procedures for Treasury instruments and whether communications were handled with due care. Intentional infliction of emotional distress requires extreme and outrageous conduct causing severe distress, a standard courts apply sparingly; many such claims rise or fall on facts developed in internal emails, teller logs, branch messaging tools, and comparator data showing how similarly situated customers were treated.