Federal prosecutors in New York have opened a criminal investigation into whether Wells Fargo violated federal laws by conducting fake job interviews, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Earlier this week, the bank said in a memo it was pausing a hiring policy that requires recruiters to interview a diverse pool of candidates, after another report by the New York Times said such interviews were often fake and conducted even though the job had already been promised to someone else.
The bank did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The New York Times reported last month that a former employee in the bank’s wealth management business had complained that he was forced by his bosses to interview people for jobs that had already been promised to others, just to meet the diverse slate requirement.
Diverse slate hiring is a talent acquisition strategy where the recruiter starts with an already diverse pool of qualified candidates.
CEO Charles Scharf has said the bank will continue to actively seek diversity in hiring even during this pause, and upon completion of the review, will make adjustments to its diverse slate program where appropriate and relaunch it in July.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
