Wells Fargo Botched Occidental Petroleum Stock Sale, Judge Rules

Wells Fargo & Co. bungled the 2020 sale of Occidental Petroleum Corp. shares on behalf of an employee trust, leading to millions of dollars in losses when the bank failed to execute trades as planned before the Covid-19 pandemic tanked the stock market, a judge in Texas ruled.

US District Judge Lee Rosenthal of Houston said she will decide later how much the bank must pay Occidental in damages, after lawyers provide more detail on losses suffered by the energy company’s so-called rabbi trust, which was used to compensate certain executives.

The value of the assets held in the trust ...