Former Wells Fargo Executive to Plead Guilty in Sham Accounts Scandal

A former top Wells Fargo executive is likely headed to prison for her role in the sham accounts scandal that engulfed the bank six years ago.

Carrie L. Tolstedt, Wells Fargo’s former head of retail banking, agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of obstructing a bank examination, the Justice Department said on Wednesday. The crime carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Ms. Tolstedt’s plea agreement calls for a sentence of up to 16 months, the agency said.

She is the first high-ranking Wells Fargo executive to be criminally charged for the bank’s actions.

Ms. Tolstedt ran Wells Fargo’s banking branches during the years that the bank opened what may have been millions of sham bank accounts, a scandal that burst into public view in 2016 and toppled two successive chief executives. Ms. Tolstedt, 63, had consistently denied any wrongdoing. She retired from the bank shortly before its misdeeds became public, and was later retroactively fired for cause.