Wells Fargo & Co. has fired or suspended more than a dozen employees in its investment bank and is investigating dozens of others over alleged violations of the company’s expense policy regarding after-hours meals, according to people familiar with the matter.
At issue is whether Wells Fargo WFC, -0.85% employees ranging from analysts to managing directors in New York, San Francisco and Charlotte, N.C., doctored receipts on dinners that they charged to the bank, the people said.
“We became aware that certain Wells Fargo Securities team members were not complying with the after-hours meals reimbursement policies after they were brought to the attention of our leaders by concerned team members,” a Wells Fargo spokeswoman said in a statement. “We took action to address the issue and we continue to investigate the matter.”
Wells Fargo, like other big banks, reimburses staffers for food that they order when they have to stay late at the office to work on deals and other assignments for clients. In recent months, however, executives within the investment-bank division, which is known as Wells Fargo Securities, learned that some employees regularly placed dinner orders through delivery services like Grubhub Inc.’s GRUB, -0.27% Seamless or Square Inc.’s SQ, +2.40% Caviar earlier than the policy allowed, the people said. Later, employees allegedly altered the time stamps on emailed receipts to make their meals eligible for reimbursement, these people added.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
Also popular on WSJ.com:
How air in the Pacific Northwest became dirtier than Beijing’s.
A radical pitch to save baseball.
