Wells Fargo Atlanta HQ.

Lawyers for former Wells Fargo & Co. general counsel James Strother have vowed to fight new charges from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency related to the bank's fake account scandal.

The OCC announced charges Thursday against Strother and four other former executives, including former CEO John Stumpf who agreed to pay $17.5 million and to be barred from participating in the banking industry. The firm's former chief administrative officer and chief risk officer also settled with the agency, agreeing to pay a combined $3.5 million.

Strother's lawyer, Walt Brown of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, however, said in an email statement that the OCC's allegations against his client are "false and unfounded, and he intends to vigorously defend against them."

James Strother.

Strother's name is mentioned 113 times in the unredacted portions of the 100-page charging document filed by the OCC on Thursday. According to the OCC, Strother oversaw a legal department that was aware that over-aggressive sales goals within Wells Fargo's consumer bank were leading employees to open unauthorized accounts in customers' names.

"Respondent Strother and the law department he supervised were aware of the longstanding sales practices misconduct problem and did nothing meaningful to address it," the OCC filing says. "Instead, respondent Strother and the law department were instrumental in maintaining the Community Bank's business model that resulted in rampant criminal and legal violations." The OCC is seeking a $5 million civil monetary penalty from Strother as well as a personal cease and desist order, which could force him to take certain actions or promise to refrain from other activities in order to be involved in the banking industry going forward.

A 2017 report from the law firm Shearman & Sterling, which conducted an internal investigation of the bank's sham account scandal, found that Strother's legal department failed to grapple with the gravity of the threats facing the bank.

"The law department's focus was principally on quantifiable monetary costs—damages, fines, penalties, restitution," the Shearman report said. "Confident those costs would be relatively modest, the law department did not appreciate that sales integrity issues reflected a systemic breakdown in Wells Fargo's culture and values and an ongoing failure to correct the widespread breaches of trust in the misuse of customers' personal data and financial information."

Brown, Strother's lawyer at Orrick, said Thursday his client had dedicated more than 30 years to the bank. "He steered Wells Fargo through historic and unprecedented legal and regulatory issues, earning the trust of all those around him," Brown said. "At all times, Mr. Strother acted with the utmost integrity and transparency, including with the bank's board, senior management, and its regulators."

Read more:

Wells Fargo GC Allen Parker Helps Restore Integrity to Embattled Financial Giant

Report Faults Wells Fargo's Law Department in Sham-Accounts Scandal