Yesterday, the city of Los Angeles filed a lawsuit against the $284 billion bank Wells Fargo alleging that the company pressured employees into defrauding unwitting customers. Isn’t that something?

The lawsuit was tied to extensive allegations laid out by the LA Times in 201: Wells Fargo employees said that the company had a systematic, high-pressure quota system for employees that ultimately left them with the choice of engaging in fraud, or being disciplined or fired. Employees were expected to constantly get customers to open new accounts and purchase new banking products, or else. As a result, the LAT wrote, “employees have opened unneeded accounts for customers, ordered credit cards without customers’ permission and forged client signatures on paperwork. Some employees begged family members to open ghost accounts.”

And surprise: the city attorney of Los Angeles alleges that the company engaged in exactly those practices—pressuring employees into scamming customers, including by opening employees in customer names without ever telling the customers— in his big new lawsuit.

No matter the final disposition of this case, it’s always nice to see a city suing a big bank on behalf of customers.

[Photo: AP]