Wachovia
Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total assets. Wachovia provided a broad range of banking, asset management, wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services. At its height, it was one of the largest providers of financial services in the United States, operating financial centers in 21 states and Washington, D.C., with locations from Connecticut to Florida and west to California. Wachovia provided global services through more than 40 offices around the world.
Wachovia
A May 2007 "New York Times" article described Wachovia's negligence in screening and taking action against companies linked with identity theft. With stolen identities, the companies used unsigned checks to remove funds from personal Wachovia bank accounts. In total, Wachovia accepted $142 million in unsigned checks from "companies that made unauthorized withdrawals from thousands of accounts", collecting millions of dollars in fees from them. According to Pat Meehan, a U.S. attorney for Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Wachovia received "thousands of warnings that it was processing fraudulent checks, but ignored them".