On April 25, 2025, Judge Trina Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued an Order granting Lead Plaintiff SEB Investment Management AB’s motion for class certification in SEB Investment Management AB v. Wells Fargo & Company, et al., No. 22-cv-03811. The Order appoints SEB and Additional Plaintiff West Palm Beach Firefighters’ Pension Fund as Class Representatives and Kessler Topaz as Class Counsel.
This securities fraud class action arises out of Wells Fargo’s misrepresentations and omissions regarding its diversity hiring initiative, the Diverse Search Requirement. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants’ statements were materially misleading because diverse candidates were routinely subjected to “fake” interviews—i.e., interviewed for jobs they had no legitimate shot of getting, including because the position was earmarked for or already given to someone else—in order for Wells Fargo to claim compliance with the Diverse Search Requirement. As Judge Thompson noted, the operative complaint cites to more than thirty sources asserting that fake interviews were widespread at Wells Fargo.
In certifying the class of Wells Fargo investors, Judge Thompson rejected Defendants’ arguments concerning Plaintiffs’ ability to calculate and prove damages, holding “Plaintiffs have shown that their damages are capable of measurement on a classwide basis consistent with their theory of liability.” The case is now in expert discovery.
The Kessler Topaz team representing the Class includes Sharan Nirmul, Stacey Kaplan, Josh Materese, Josh D’Ancona, Evan Hoey, Dylan Isenberg, Marianna Uy, and Bennett Cho-Smith.