By Jeff Blumenthal | Philadelphia Business Journal
Wells Fargo Securities has agreed to pay more than $800,000 to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit over Rhode Island’s failed $75 million deal with former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Curt Schilling’s video game company.
The settlement, announced this week in a U.S. District Court filing in Rhode Island, was approved March 20 by a federal judge. The San Francisco-based bank, which is the Valley’s second-largest deposit holder, is required to pay $812,500 and would be permanently barred from violating certain municipal securities and other laws. The subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) does not admit or deny wrongdoing in the filing and said it “looks forward to putting the matter behind us.”
In March 2016, the SEC sued Wells Fargo and The Rhode Island Economic Development Corp. (RIEDC) for allegedly defrauding investors in a municipal bond offering to finance a startup video game company led by Schilling.