Wells Fargo paying $6.58M to settle SEC charges

Wells Fargo's brokerage firm has agreed to pay $6.58 million to settle federal civil charges that it failed to adequately inform investors about the risks tied to mortgage securities it sold.

The Securities and Exchange Commission says Wells Fargo Brokerage Services improperly sold the high-risk investments to cities and towns, non-profit institutions and other investors in 2007, when the housing bust was under way.

The firm is paying a $6.5 million civil fine and $81,571 in restitution plus interest.

A former firm vice president, Shawn McMurtry, also agreed to settle the charges. He's paying a $25,000 civil fine and will be suspended for six months from the securities industry.

Wells Fargo and McMurtry neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

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