Wells Fargo & Co. on Tuesday urged a California federal judge to dismiss claims against three of its executives in a derivative lawsuit filed by shareholders. The shareholders allege that the bank’s leadership failed to address discriminatory lending and hiring practices, but Wells Fargo argues that the investors did not explain why they could not have raised their concerns with the company’s board before taking the matter to court.
During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson in San Francisco, a lawyer for Wells Fargo argued that the second amended complaint still doesn’t explain why the investors felt there was no point in approaching the bank’s board of directors with concerns related to the three executives before filing the lawsuit. The operative 170-page complaint, filed in October, lodges claims against 14 current and former bank directors, as well as four officers. The motion to dismiss seeks to dismiss three of the four officers from the lawsuit: Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Scott Powell; Carly Sanchez, a senior executive in human resources at Wells Fargo who served as vice president of talent acquisition and diversity recruiting from 2013 to 2022; and Senior Executive Vice President and CEO of Consumer Lending Kleber Santos.
