After Uproar, Wells Fargo Calls Off Trip to Las Vegas

[jannyk]

Source: WSJ

Wells Fargo & Co. hastily canceled plans to host a Las Vegas employee conference after lawmakers in Washington learned about the trip and heaped criticism on the bank.

The San Francisco bank said it decided to cancel the four-day event "in light of the current environment." Government money wasn't to be used for the meeting, the company said.

Initially, a spokesman for Wells Fargo said in a statement, the bank wasn't going to back away from holding the conference. Just hours later, as television networks and bloggers pummeled the bank, Wells Fargo began backpedaling.

First, a spokesman asked journalists to "disregard" the earlier statement. Then the bank put out a new release about the cancellation of the event, which it said was not a "junket" but a "meeting and recognition event for the hard-working team members who made homeownership achievable and sustainable for borrowers across the nation."



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123371136824046167.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

---

ooooh, it was the Mortgage Brokers party - well.....that's different - party's over you fuckers!!!!

[grasswire]

1. if I had the nerve....

....I would drop off a bag of dog poop at the front door of my local WF branch.

[PBS Poll-435]

2. It was a 12 day event.

4 days for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

4 for Investment/Insurance/Indirect Lending

4 for Retail Banking



They have a "Sales & Service Conference" every year.

[Why Syzygy]

3. The junk paper spreaders???

hard-working team members who made homeownership achievable and sustainable for borrowers across the nation."

I read that they wanted to recognize .. but I could not imagine for what. Doesn't that just explain everything. Not.

The Interent is our Tool. They cannot get away with their usual crap ever again. Go People!

[DCKit]

4. Imagine the teleconferencing system they could set up for the price of each airline ticket and room.

Wall St. and the bankers just don't get it. Obviously a dose of "tough love" is in order for these poorly behaved, willfully ignorant children. Let's take their toys away.

[suston96]

5. This may be a perception problem. I don't believe Wells Fargo is in any trouble.

They had an equal right to a proportionate handout of government stipends, in fairness to us, the depositors and customers of their services.

[dkf]

6. We will see soon enough where each institution stands.

It looks like everyone will have the chance to pay the TARP back.

[Le Taz Hot]

10. If they weren't in trouble

why did they take TAXPAYER money? Having a legal right to something doesn't mean they have the ethical right to it.

[saigon68]

13. I have a bridge I'd like to sell the taxpayers

From the news release

"Recognition events are still part of our culture," spokeswoman Melissa Murray said Tuesday afternoon. "It's really important that our team members are still valued and recognized."

In previous years, top Wells Fargo loan officers were treated to performances by Cher, Jay Leno and Huey Lewis. One year, the company provided fortune tellers and offered camel rides, said Debra Rickard, a former Wells Fargo mortgage employee from Colorado who attended the events regularly until she left the company in 2004.

"I was amazed with just how lavish it was," Rickard said. "We stayed in top hotels, the entertainment was just unbelievable, and there were awards -- you got plaques or trophies."

Kevin Waetke, another spokesman for Wells Fargo, said the Las Vegas trip provided a "unique opportunity" for employees of Wells Fargo and newly acquired bank Wachovia Corp. "to focus on continuing to do all we can for U.S. homeowners."

[Tansy_Gold]

18. Tell you what.

I'll take my Tarot cards into my local WF outlet. Will that make 'em happy? Sorry, though. I don't have a camel.

[PBS Poll-435]

21. I love how they quote former employees

Not shock journalism at all, right?

[sendero]

15. You are quite mistaken....

... WF is in the top 10 bad banks, if not the top 5.

[sarcasmo]

19. If they are that well off why did they take Government money?

[Mosby]

20. They were forced to take TARP money

and it was an equity swap, cash in exchange for WF stock. WF has already paid dividends to the US Gov. to the tune of 371.5 million dollars for their shares.

[onethatcares]

7. apparently they keep the TARP money in a seperated account

or is the entire thing a swindle of the American public?

[acmavm]

8. What money do they have other than 'government' money?

[sendero]

16. Exactly...

... all their money is belong to us.

Tell ya what, you give me $1000, I will use it to buy food and use some of MY money to go to Vegas. Does anyone fall for this prevarication?

[PBS Poll-435]

28. Anyone with a 6th grade education can read an income statement

Wells Fargo made money last year. TARP is a TRAP. Forced to take money so that people didn't have a run on the other banks.

[PBS Poll-435]

23. Maybe the 2.84 billion dollars they made last year

After taxes.

:-)

[truthisfreedom]

9. The money's all co-mingled. You can't unmix a drink.

If they wanna get an American Taxpayer Bailout, they're going to live like American Taxpayers.

At home, counting their pennies.

[liberal N proud]

11. Government money wasn't to be used for the meeting?

If they had money to party on, why did they need money from the Government in the first place?

I heard on MSNBC Sunday that the companies use other money for the bonuses. If they have other money for bonuses, then they should use that before asking for money from the Government.

:grr:

[depakid]

12. ....not a "junket" but a "meeting and recognition event"

These folks are just too thick to be believed.

[PBS Poll-435]

22. Rewarding employees is bad

Got it, thanks.

[No Elephants]

26. You reward employees if you had a great year, not if you had to beg for money.

[PBS Poll-435]

27. They had a GREAT year

To the tune of 2.8 billion in net profit (after taxes)!

And the Government had to beg (demand) Wells Fargo to take the money.

[No Elephants]

25. No, they just think we are.

[PBS Poll-435]

29. Believe it

Wells Fargo takes employees who excelled in their jobs to recognition trips every year.

Even the folks who make $10 an hour.

[dreamnightwind]

14. I heard they didn't want it

I heard that they actually didn't ask for the TARP funds, that Paulson twisted their arms to take it, whereas other banks were screaming for it.

Seriously, Wells has their problems, but I think they're relatively well off.

[peaches2003]

17. Keeping their jobs is recognition enough

In this economy just having and keeping their jobs is recognition enough for these bankers and brokers. So the money for the junket was not from bailout money? So what. Every penny spent on this Las Vegas crap could be spent to run the ocmpany operations and use less of the bailout $. Fools. And my mortgage and banking funds are all in WF/Wachovia so I have the right to complain.

[No Elephants]

24. A reward for the people who brought Wells Fargo to

its knees, begging in D.C. for taxpayer money.

What's this about taxpayer money's not being used for the junket? How can you even make a statement like that?

[WriteDown]

31. What the heck are you talking about....

WF made almost 3B last year and they were vocal in their opposition to the TARP when it came out. They were forced to take the money. There was no choice. The govt gets a sweet dividend though.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/02/news/wells.dividend.fortune/index.htm

[PBS Poll-435]

30. If we could harvest energy out of some of the DUMB on this thread

The US could be off Middle East oil in short of 6 hours.