Over 2,600 New Jersey residents were affected by the scam and will see a refund totaling about $70,000, according to Menendez.
TEANECK -- Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said he plans to take retail banking giant Wells Fargo to task in the wake of a scandal in which the bank created two million fake accounts.
Appearing before the bank's branch on Cedar Lane, Menendez stood with a New Jersey mother whose daughter was caught up in the scam.
"The bank who literally promises in its promotional literature to its customers that 'it will never put the stagecoach ahead of its horses' in fact sat back while the stagecoach rolled over two million customers," he said.
On Friday, Members of the Senate Banking Committee, including Menendez, sent a letter to Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf asking if the bank will use its authority to recover compensation it has paid to senior executives.
Earlier this month, Wells Fargo was fined $185 million dollars as a result of bank employees secretly opening accounts for its customers and then charging fees associated with those accounts.
Menendez said he was happy with The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's results in the case.
"As a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, I fought tooth and nail during Wall Street Reform to get a cop on the beat to protect consumers from unfair practices," Menendez said. "And today they are truly living up to their name."
As a result of the scam, the bank was ordered to pay full restitution to the victims totaling $2.5 million.
Over 2,600 New Jersey residents were affected by the scam and will see a refund totaling about $70,000, according to Menendez.
The bank has fired about 5,300 employees who participated in the scam.
Stumpf has been called to testify Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee.
Menendez said he plans to grill Stumpf on how the scam happened and on upper-level management's alleged ignorance.
"If these were two employees," Menendez said. "But 5,300? And the upper levels didn't know about it?"
Linda Edwards, a Rumson resident, spoke Friday about how the scam affected her then-18-year-old daughter just as she was preparing to go off to college.
"At the same time she was receiving almost daily harassing phone calls from Wells Fargo looking to collect what they said was an unpaid credit card debt," Edwards said. "Needless to say we were disturbed by these frequent calls because our daughter never even owned a credit card."
Edwards said the bank told her they didn't have any applications from their daughter and that the accounts were created by an autogenerated glitch. She later obtained documents which show the bank forged her daughter's signature for the credit cards application.
Menedez said the scam could have further reaching implications such as loans and credit cards that were denied to residents due to a negative credit score caused by the bank's actions.
Fausto Giovanny Pinto may be reached at fpinto@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @FGPreporting. Find NJ.com on Facebook.