Protesters Crash Wells Fargo Meeting

Some 15 shareholders were arrested for disrupting Wells Fargo's annual shareholder meeting in San Francisco yesterday. The protesters—allowed in because they own Wells Fargo shares—were ejected after shouting over CEO John Stumpf's presentation about the bank's $15.9 billion profit in 2011, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Hundreds of other protesters, including Occupy activists and people whose homes have been foreclosed, surrounded the downtown building where the meeting was being held.

Protesters called for the bank to call a moratorium on home foreclosures and cut its ties to "predatory" payday lenders. A Wells Fargo spokesman defended the bank's policies, saying it had modified 740,000 mortgages and forgiven $4 billion in principal since 2009. "We work to keep people in their homes where there is affordability," he said. "Unfortunately some people have seen their incomes drastically reduced due to unemployment or underemployment." During the meeting, shareholders approved a $19.8 million compensation package for Stumpf, down $1 million from last year. (More Occupy Wall Street stories.)