Wells Fargo sexual harassment shocker: VP invited female subordinate to shower with him

A former Wells Fargo senior VP has been accused of sexually harassing a female subordinate

A former Wells Fargo executive has been accused of subjecting a female subordinate to unwanted sexual advances from 2016 up until 2020. Former senior vice president Carl Nelson was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit the unidentified woman filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 2, according to The New York Post.

The lawsuit alleges that Nelson gave unwanted massages to the female subordinate because she “looked tense,” invited her to his house to “exercise and shower with him” and threatened to deny her job opportunities if she did not agree to date him.

The woman said that Nelson was her superior at Wells Fargo, where she served as vice president and senior portfolio manager after her promotion in 2005. She said the inappropriate comments and unwanted massages began in 2016.

According to court filings, the woman’s two assistants were aware of Nelson’s misconduct. They would walk into her office when they noticed Nelson was there in an attempt to “block Nelson’s touching.”

One specific incident from 2016 cited in the lawsuit claims the woman brought her fiancé to office one afternoon. Nelson began referring to him as a “boy toy” and asked the woman to have dinner and wine with him instead.

Between 2018 and 2020, Nelson also used his position of power to threaten the woman to see him outside of work. He “would tell [her] that he would not give her any sales opportunities…unless [she] went out with him,” the woman alleged.

“For years, Wells Fargo did close to nothing to investigate [the woman’s] complaints of sexual harassment,” according to the court filing. “Thus, Nelson’s inappropriate behaviour continued.”

The woman has claimed that she complained about Nelson to her superior, Tim Smith, but to no avail. Smith asked the woman to respond to Nelson by telling him that she works only during business hours. The woman claims she asked to be removed from all accounts associated with Nelson but Smith refused to do that either.

In her lawsuit, she says Wells Fargo laid her off in October 2020 under the “pretext” of the pandemic. Nelson has since left the company to work at UBS.

“We take all allegations of misconduct very seriously,” a Wells Fargo spokesperson told The Post. “We just learned of the lawsuit [on Wednesday] and are reviewing it.”