Apparently
the State Bond Commission of Louisiana is more interested in protecting
manufacturers and sellers of guns rather than protecting its citizens from
unethical money scammers. Earlier this year they passed a resolution
forbidding the state of Louisiana from seeking bond funding bids from CITI Bank
and The Bank of American because of their moral stand on restricting their
business with manufactures and sellers of guns, yet they have no problem
awarding their recent bond bid to Wells Fargo Bank.
In the last few years, Wells Fargo Bank committed serious crimes.
That’s the clear takeaway from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau’s
decision which resulted in it is levying its largest-ever fine against the
bank. Wells Fargo had to pay out $100 million to the CFPB, plus $85 million to
other authorities, for a pattern of fraud, dating back to
2011, in which its employees opened up a vast number of new checking and credit
accounts without the account holders’ consent or knowledge.
Additionally, more recently, thousands of customers who bought
cars with loans from Wells Fargo were forced to buy unnecessary insurance
policies from the bank with premiums that topped a $1,000 a year. The bank said
the policies could have contributed to about 27,000 customers having their cars
repossessed after defaulting on their loans.
So, as is so often the case in Louisiana, morality and ethics
are cast aside in favor of rewarding crooked, unlawful practices. Way to
go to go: Treasurer
John M. Schroder; Attorney General Jeff Landry; Speaker of the House Taylor F.
Barras, R-New Iberia; Rep. Stephen Dwight, R-Lake Charles; Rep. Blake Miguez,
R-Erath; and Rep. Raymond Crews, R-Bossier City, all of whom voted for the
restrictive resolution and yesterday voted to accept the Wells Fargo bid.
