It seems that Wells Fargo canceled it’s all-expense-paid employee extravaganza in Vegas very shortly after the Associated Press article hit the news.
The company initially defended the trip after The Associated Press reported it had booked 12 nights beginning Friday at the Wynn Las Vegas and the Encore Las Vegas. But within hours, investigators and lawmakers on Capitol Hill had scorned the bank, and the company canceled.
I’m stunned and impressed by lawmakers actually commenting on this so quickly and laying the smack down. It’s refreshing… and surprising.
What did Wells Fargo have to say about the whole thing?
“In light of the current environment, we have now decided to cancel this event as well,” the company said Tuesday night in a news release that also said the it had never planned to use taxpayer bailout money for the trip.
“The current environment” must mean the environment where everyone in the entire country, including investigators and lawmakers, is screaming obscenities at their absurd lack of judgement.
And what’s this about never planning to use taxpayer bailout money for the trip? Until they pay back the full amount they were given via the bailout, every penny in that company is taxpayer bailout money. It’s not like they were given a loan to make some improvements to their facilities. They were given bailout money to keep their company from going under due to poor management and bad business decisions. Without the bailout money, they’d be done… finished… game over.
So until they demonstrate they can be fiscally and managerially responsible by paying back all the bailout money and making a profit without government assistance, they’ve got no money that isn’t taxpayer bailout money. Until that point, every single cent of expenditure should be watched with a proverbial magnifying glass to make sure they don’t try, once again, to bilk their customers… and their country… out of billions of dollars.
Buying some extra staples is fine. Buying a 12-day, all-expense-paid, hedonistic party for the employees… not so much.