We just published a podcast which covers these joined stories. This blog adds some little known facts to the many stories of institutional dishonesty and abuse.
The fourth largest bank in our country was Wells Fargo. It was ruled by a CEO named John Stumpf who evidently was fined 17.5 million dollars and banned from the banking business. The bank pressured its employees to create false accounts in order to meet fictitious sales quotas.
I complained to Mr. Stumpf when Wells Fargo sued me and my wife to foreclose a real estate mortgage which covered a piece of property I owned in Melbourne,Florida. This mortgage was being paid automatically by computer by my own bank. My wife had nothing to do with this property. Wells Fargo created a violation of the mortgage by saying that the tax account under the mortgage was inadequate and never gave me any notice and served my wife with the legal complaint at our apartment at ten o’clock at night.
That, in my opinion, is fraudulent and dishonest.
I don’t think that they are number four anymore.
Did I mention the Boy Scouts in my podcast? They broke the record for engendering the largest sex abuse case. They are hoping to get out of bankruptcy with a 2.4-billion-dollar settlement fund to cover the 80,000 men who claim abuse. What ever happened to the Boy Scout Pledge which ends with the promise to keep “morally straight”?
Here’s a story I’ll bet you’re never heard before. It involves an extremely religious CEO and his very pious board of directors. The corporation had made an unexpected recovery of twenty million dollars, and it was expected that these funds would be deposited into the corporate bank account. You would know this company immediately. They are headquartered in the Midwest. At a Board meeting the CEO proposed that the fund be divided, ten million dollars to him and one million dollars to each director. Carried unanimously! The motion and resolution were duly reported in a footnote in the back of the annual report. So much for corporate integrity.
Now there’s Father Richard Murphy. It’s being kept kind of quiet up here in Vero Beach. Father Murphy died in 2020. He was loved at the Holy Cross Catholic Church. His associate Deborah True is facing some significant charges. Evidently 1.5 million dollars donated to the church wound up in a private bank account over a five-year period. They’re tracking down the money. Don’t be surprised if it went for personal items. Ms. True recently pleaded “not guilty”. Oh my, I hope that it’s not true.
The time passed so fast. I don’t even have space left to tell you that I think that Steve Bannon could possibly be re-subpoenaed by Congress and when he again refuses to testify or produce documents, could be found in contempt of Congress for a second time. Also, he’s facing criminal charges in New York for allegedly skimming the Build the Wall fund which was going to be used to build a private wall on the Mexican border, which I personally don’t think can be done. The entire project may be a scam. Ex-president Trump pardoned Steve Bannon for the Federal charges related to the “Wall Scheme”, but this charge involves New York State and is outside federal jurisdiction.
My father handled a jury trial for a client many years ago. The client had to leave town and asked that my father wire him with the outcome. My father wired:
“Justice prevailed!”
The client wired back:
“Take immediate appeal.”
Best wishes ~ Lewis