Supplier Series : Wells Fargo – The Fraudulent Bankers Propping Up Cummins’ Polluting Machine

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Look, in the grimy underbelly of corporate America, where greed chokes out decency and the air stinks of exhaust fumes and bullshit, Cummins Inc. has built an empire on engines that power everything from trucks to generators. But scratch the surface, and you’ll find a network of suppliers and partners rotten to the core, mired in scandals that would make any half-decent human retch. We’ve been hammering this point home at TCAP for months now, exposing the filth in Cummins’ supply chain – from toxic chemical giants to logistics outfits built on exploitation. And today, we’re turning the spotlight on Wells Fargo, the banking behemoth that’s allegedly been cosying up to Cummins, providing the financial grease to keep this polluting juggernaut rolling.

Wells Fargo isn’t just any bank; it’s a scandal factory that’s been fined billions for screwing over customers, rigging markets, and generally acting like the financial equivalent of a back-alley thug. And guess what? It fits right into Cummins’ world, a company whose own history of emissions cheating and corporate sleaze we’ve documented exhaustively here at TCAP. From the record-breaking $1.675 billion penalty for installing defeat devices in hundreds of thousands of Ram trucks to allegations of forced labour in their supply chain, Cummins’ ecosystem is a cesspool of ethical failures. Partnering with Wells Fargo? It’s like two crooks high-fiving over a heist – utterly apt, and utterly infuriating.

The Unholy Partnership: How Wells Fargo Became Cummins’ Financial Lifeline

Let’s get this straight: Wells Fargo is no stranger to Cummins. According to Cummins’ own SEC filings, in May 2024, the engine maker entered into an accounts receivable sales agreement with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. This deal allows Cummins to offload certain accounts receivable – basically, IOUs from customers – up to a board-approved limit, injecting quick cash into their operations. It’s factoring, plain and simple: Cummins sells its unpaid invoices to Wells Fargo at a discount, and the bank collects the full amount later. In the cutthroat world of manufacturing, this kind of financial juggling keeps the wheels turning, funding everything from production lines to R&D on so-called “clean” tech that’s often anything but.

But it doesn’t stop there. Wells Fargo has its fingers deeper in Cummins’ pie. In June 2024, as part of a second amended and restated credit agreement, Wells Fargo was listed as a lender, providing revolving credit facilities that could prop up Cummins’ day-to-day borrowing needs. And back in 2023, when Cummins spun off its filtration business Atmus into an IPO, Wells Fargo Securities acted as one of the joint book-running managers, helping to underwrite and flog shares to investors. More recently, in November 2025, Wells Fargo initiated stock coverage on Cummins with an “Overweight” rating and a $599 price target, essentially giving the company a thumbs-up in the eyes of Wall Street.

Is Wells Fargo a “supplier” in the traditional sense? Hell yes, if you count financial services as the lifeblood of any massive corporation. Cummins relies on banks like Wells Fargo for liquidity, credit, and investment banking – services that enable them to navigate economic rough patches, expand operations, and, allegedly, paper over the cracks in their scandal-ridden business. Without partners like this, Cummins’ polluting empire would grind to a halt. And given TCAP’s ongoing exposure of Cummins’ dodgy dealings – from greenwashing their diesel tech to ties with suppliers accused of environmental crimes – it’s no surprise they’d hook up with a bank that’s equally adept at dodging accountability.

This partnership isn’t some one-off fling; it’s a calculated alliance in a system where finance and industry feed off each other’s excesses. Cummins gets the capital to keep churning out engines that, as we’ve detailed, have been caught cheating emissions tests. Wells Fargo gets fat fees and a slice of the action. It’s a match made in corporate hell, and it reeks.

Wells Fargo’s Parade of Scandals: A Legacy of Lies and Larceny

If Cummins is the king of emissions fraud, Wells Fargo is the emperor of banking bullshit. This isn’t hyperbole; it’s a documented history of screwing people over on a massive scale. Let’s dive into the muck, shall we? Because if you’re going to partner with Cummins, whose scandals we’ve catalogued from forced labour allegations to data leaks, you need a rap sheet that matches.

The big one, the scandal that blew the lid off, was the fake accounts fiasco. Back in 2016, it emerged that Wells Fargo employees had created millions – yes, millions – of unauthorised savings and checking accounts in customers’ names, all to hit insane sales targets. This wasn’t a few bad apples; it was systemic rot, driven by a toxic culture of pressure and incentives. The bank admitted to opening up to 3.5 million bogus accounts without consent, leading to a $3 billion settlement with the US Department of Justice in 2020. Customers got hit with fees they never agreed to, credit scores tanked, and lives were upended. As one report put it, it was “widespread fraud within its consumer banking division.” Fucking outrageous, right? And yet, Wells Fargo just paid up and moved on, like it was a parking ticket.

But wait, there’s more. In 2018, the bank was fined $2.1 billion by the DOJ for misrepresenting the quality of mortgages it sold to investors between 2005 and 2007 – dodgy loans that helped fuel the financial crisis. Then came the auto and mortgage loan scandals: Customers were slapped with illegal fees and interest on car and home loans, cars were wrongly repossessed, and homes foreclosed on unnecessarily. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and others hammered them with penalties, including a $1 billion fine in 2018 for these abuses.

And let’s not forget the more recent hits. In 2025, studies showed how the 2016 scandal drove borrowers to fintech lenders, eroding trust in traditional banks. Wells Fargo has been accused of everything from racial discrimination in lending to manipulating stock trades. Hell, they’ve even been tangled in environmental controversies, financing pipelines and fossil fuel projects that draw ire from activists. It’s a never-ending shitshow, with the bank racking up over $20 billion in fines since 2000 alone.

These aren’t isolated incidents; they’re the hallmark of a company that prioritises profit over people. And in Cummins’ world, where we’ve uncovered supplier after supplier mired in similar filth – think BASF’s toxic spills or Continental AG’s diesel cheats – Wells Fargo slots in perfectly. Their controversies aren’t just apt; they’re a mirror image of Cummins’ own playbook: Cheat the system, pay the fine, and keep polluting the planet and poisoning trust.

Why This Matters: Cummins’ Ecosystem of Exploitation

We’ve said it before at TCAP, and we’ll scream it until someone listens: Cummins’ entire operation is built on a foundation of scandals. From the $1.675 billion emissions penalty – the largest in Clean Air Act history – for fitting defeat devices to 630,000 Ram trucks between 2013 and 2019, to ongoing probes into their Russian operations and allegations of forced labour in China-linked suppliers, this company is a menace. We’ve documented it all: The greenwashing, the data breaches, the worker injuries, the political meddling. And their supplier network? It’s a who’s who of corporate villains, each one enabling Cummins to keep belching out diesel dreams while the world chokes.

Bringing in Wells Fargo as a financial partner is no accident. A bank that’s allegedly rigged everything from accounts to mortgages is the ideal enabler for a firm like Cummins, which needs steady cashflow to weather its own storms. Think about it: While Cummins was agreeing to recall and repair those cheating trucks in 2024, Wells Fargo was right there, factoring their receivables and extending credit. It’s symbiosis in the swamp – one hand washes the other, both covered in grime.

This isn’t just business; it’s a betrayal of every worker, every community, every breath of clean air. Cummins talks a big game about sustainability, but their ties to scandal-plagued outfits like Wells Fargo expose the hypocrisy. As TCAP continues to peel back the layers, one thing’s clear: The rot runs deep, and it’s time to hold these bastards accountable.

Lee Thompson – Founder, The Cummins Accountability Project

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