Wells Fargo executive ‘barged in’ to colleague’s hotel room and raped her, lawsuit says

A former Wells Fargo senior vice president and wealth advisor is suing the company after she said it did nothing to stop repeated sexual harassment from one of her superiors, a managing director.

In the lawsuit, filed Feb. 2, the senior vice president, identified only as Jane Doe, also accuses the managing director of raping her during a work trip to Bakersfield, California.

When she reported the sexual misconduct to Wells Fargo, “no meaningful investigation ensued” and she instead had to endure “adverse actions” at work, including having her clients reassigned to another employee and being excluded from client communications, the lawsuit says.

A spokesperson for Wells Fargo, which is headquartered in San Francisco, said in a statement, “We take all allegations of misconduct very seriously and are reviewing the lawsuit.”

Sexual harassment at work

Throughout her employment, the senior vice president was “subjected to sexually explicit comments and inappropriate touching” by the managing director, who was her superior within Wells Fargo, the complaint says.

He made comments about her appearance, including saying that she “aged like fine wine” and that skinny jeans “made her butt look good,” the complaint says.

He groped or attempted to grope her multiple times at work events and “regularly” invited her to his second home in Lake Tahoe, excluding their respective families, the complaint says. He also suggested that she sleep with the son of one of the company’s wealthy clients and “exchange sex for money,” according to the complaint.

On Jan. 28, 2020, a team of Wells Fargo employees went to Bakersfield to meet with clients and prospective clients, and they all stayed in a hotel. During a dinner, the senior vice president stepped away from the table to go to the bathroom. When she returned, she found that the managing director and three other male colleagues had gone through her purse, taken inappropriate pictures of themselves on her phone and taken her credit card and hotel room key, the lawsuit says.

The employees went for drinks at a bar before returning to their respective hotel rooms. At some point in the night, the senior vice president received a knock on her door, and when she opened it, the managing director “barged in,” began kissing her and then sexually assaulted and raped her, the complaint says.

About a month later, she complained to one of her supervisors that the managing director made her uncomfortable, but that supervisor told her that it was up to her not to give the managing director a “window of opportunity” to be inappropriate, the complaint says.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the senior vice president asked what would be the most appropriate way to come in to work, and the managing director said “swim suit attire (would be) most appropriate,” the complaint says.

On Nov. 13, 2020, she made a formal complaint through the Wells Fargo ethics hotline about the rape on the night of Jan. 28, 2020, and also made a complaint through the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the complaint says.

She accuses Wells Fargo of not actively investigate her complaint and instead punishing her by taking away her clients and threatening to exclude her from lucrative accounts, according to the complaint.

In April 2021, she submitted a formal charge through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, at which point Wells Fargo kicked off its internal investigation, the complaint says . The investigation was still active in July 2021, according to the complaint.

“Wells Fargo is either grossly incompetent or insidiously calculating to still have an investigation about rape open 8 months on,” the complaint says .

The senior vice president decided to resign that month for her mental well-being, according to the lawsuit.

Seeking damages

Throughout her employment with Wells Fargo, the senior vice president had to deal with a hostile work environment, which included “repeated derogatory comments, inappropriate touching, and rape,” by the managing director, the lawsuit says.

Other supervisors and the company as a whole “failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action to stop the harassment,” the complaint says.

The company also “retaliated against” her after she complained about the harassment, the lawsuit says.

She is seeking damages, including unpaid wages, loss of earnings and other employment benefits, as well as damages for emotional distress, medical expenses and attorney’s fees, the lawsuit says.

This story was originally published February 9, 2023 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Wells Fargo executive ‘barged in’ to colleague’s hotel room and raped her, lawsuit says."