Wells Fargo Accidentally Releases Trove of Data on Wealthy Clients
By SERGE F. KOVALESKI and STACY COWLEYJULY 21, 2017
When a lawyer for Gary Sinderbrand, a former Wells Fargo employee, subpoenaed the bank as part of a defamation lawsuit against a bank employee, he
and Mr. Sinderbrand expected to receive a selection of emails and documents related to the case.
But what landed in Mr. Sinderbrand’s hands on July 8 went far beyond what his lawyer had asked for: Wells Fargo had turned over — by accident,
according to the bank’s lawyer — a vast trove of confidential information about tens of thousands of the bank’s wealthiest clients.
Reached on Friday, a day after Ms. Turiano was made aware of the issue, a spokeswoman for Wells Fargo Advisors, Emily Acquisto,
released the following statement: “Wells Fargo takes the security and privacy of our customers’ information seriously.
Based on the fairly narrow subpoena that his lawyer submitted — it sought communications about Mr. Sinderbrand’s employment
and compensation — there was no reason for the bank to turn over such information, especially without any redactions, Mr. Sinderbrand said.
“Wells Fargo has not identified what specific documents it asserts were inadvertently exposed.”
The disclosure is a data breach that potentially violates a bevy of state and federal consumer data privacy laws
that limit the release of personally identifiable customer information to outside parties.