Estrada said employees would open premium checking accounts for Latino immigrants, enabling them to send money across the border at no charge. Those accounts could be opened with just $50, but customers were supposed to have at least $25,000 on deposit at Wells Fargo within three months or pay a $30 monthly charge. ||||| 
 
 Siham El-Dahan said she has held financial services jobs for more than 20 years and joined Wells in May 2013, working as a business banker in the San Fernando Valley until she was fired two weeks ago. 
 
 
 
 El-Dahan said she sought help from the bank's human-relations department beginning in September. She said her managers played favorites, denied employees' breaks that are required by law and regularly threatened employees about meeting sales quotas. 
 
 
 
 Employees responded by opening bogus accounts for customers who didn't want them on a "daily" basis, she told The Times. 
 
 
 
 When she asked to be transferred to another branch, she was referred back to her managers, she said. An emailed letter of complaint to bank directors and a signed letter to Wells Fargo's chief executive, John Stumpf, drew no response, El-Dahan said. 
 
 
 
 She believes she was fired in retaliation for speaking out. The stated reason was that a customer she signed up for a loan had defaulted, but she said she had nothing to do with the underwriting or approval of the loan. 
 
 
 
 Customers continue to report problems too. Frank Ahn, who runs a San Fernando Valley convenience store, said Wells overwhelmed him by opening one unwanted account after another — despite his repeated protests. 
 
 
 
 It started four years ago, he said, when he opened two accounts. Immediately, bank employees started pitching him on more accounts he didn't need, sometimes saying they must be opened by certain dates, which he interpreted as deadlines to meet quotas. 
 
 
 
 After repeated phone calls, Ahn said, he opened a third account he didn't need, as a favor to the banker. He was told there would be no charge, got charged anyway, then canceled the account, 
 
 
 
 "Then a couple of months later, I got three new accounts and a credit card I hadn't asked for," Ahn said. "I called the 800 number and said I want them canceled. They would cancel them, but more would pop up later." 
 
 
 
 Ahn then went into the branch to complain and have the accounts canceled. 
 
 
 
 "They said, 'We'll get rid of them,' but they never did," he said. "It got to where I had 10 accounts." 
 
 
 
 Eventually, Ahn said, he got most but not all of the improper fees reversed. He would have switched to another bank, he said, but too many of his dozens of suppliers are connected to the account, making it impossible to untangle the payment systems. 
 
 
 
 Ahn, 33, who grew up in the Valley, said he feels sorry for people like his parents, immigrants from South Korea, who would not have the English skills to conduct what Ahn calls "a three-year battle" with Wells Fargo. 
 
 
 
 "This is making me a less productive person," he said. "I should be spending my time improving the productivity of my business instead of this." 
 
 
 
 Wells Fargo declined to comment on El-Dahan's and Ahn's stories.
– The city of Los Angeles is suing Wells Fargo, claiming the California-based bank pushed employees to engage "in unfair, unlawful, and fraudulent conduct" to hit sales quotas. The suit notes bank employees opened unauthorized accounts for customers, failed to close them when asked, and applied phony fees that hurt customers' credit. The bank says the issues stem from a few bad eggs, who have been disciplined or fired. But "on the rare occasions when Wells Fargo did take action against its employees for unethical sales conduct, Wells Fargo further victimized its customers by failing to inform them of the breaches, refund fees they were owed, or otherwise remedy the injuries that Wells Fargo and its bankers have caused," the suit alleges, per the Los Angeles Times. The suit also claims bank employees robbed customer accounts of money that was used to pay fees on accounts they never wanted, while the bank placed customers in collections and added "derogatory information" to credit reports, Courthouse News reports. The lawsuit follows a 2013 Times investigation which described Wells Fargo employees forging customers' signatures to open unwanted accounts. In new interviews, a former employee says false accounts were opened "daily," while a customer describes "a three-year battle" with the bank after his three accounts multiplied to 10. Per the suit: "Wells Fargo has generated a virtual fee-generating machine, through which its customers are harmed, its employees take the blame, and Wells Fargo reaps the profit." LA hopes to put an end to the practices, with up to a $2,500 fine for each violation, plus refunds for customers.