(KUTV) Utah is poised to become ground zero in a lawsuit aimed at making Wells Fargo pay. Victims of the bank’s recent scheme hope to hit the bank where it hurts and hit them hard – and Utah might hold the key to it all.

In the weeks since news broke that Wells Fargo opened as many as 2 million fake accounts in their customers’ names, there has been a barrage of moves made by the bank to show they’re taking the fraud seriously. The bank swiftly fired 5300 employees, sent their CEO to capitol hill to be grilled by Congress and paid a $185 million fine.

But if Zane Christensen has his way, the bank is going to pay a whole lot more — $10 billion more to be exact.

“[$185 million] is a drop in the bucket to them,” he said. “We want Wells Fargo to not only make everyone whole, but to actually pay the price for what they’ve done.”

Christensen is a lawyer with Christensen, Young and Associates based in Sandy, Utah. He says his firm has been contacted by about 100 people so far who have been hurt by the bank. It’s a “hurt” that goes a lot deeper than a just bank fees. The bogus accounts have been dinging people’s credit scores, leaving many paying more for mortgages, cars, credit cards, even utilities.

“It really does effect individuals in a vast way and many won’t know that they have been effected unless they actually check their credit,” he said.

Christensen, Young and Associates is trying to bring a national class action lawsuit against Wells Fargo through Utah’s district court.

Wells Fargo is based in San Francisco, so why bring the case in Utah? Christensen says it’s actually an important part of his strategy to prevail. He predicts Wells Fargo is going to ask that the case be thrown out since all Wells Fargo customers agree to settle disputes through arbitration.

He is betting that a Utah judge won’t let the bank get away with that argument whereas a California judge might.

“We feel like Utah will give the best opportunity for our clients to be heard in court and not allow Wells Fargo to hide behind their forced arbitration clause,” he said. “We don’t believe that banks are too big to fail and that people are too small to protect.”

For their part, Wells Fargo sent a brief statement in response to an interview request that reads, “Thank you for your email. A member of our team will be in touch with you shortly. Have a wonderful day!”

Wells Fargo was aware of the broadcast time for this story and did not offer any further response before broadcast, some 32 hours after that initial response.

Christensen says he hopes all Wells Fargo customers check their credit reports and look for anything suspicious tied to the bank – if anyone does notice any potential fraud, Christensen says he and his firm want to hear about it.

For more information, please visit the source link below.