AOC grills bank big on funding ties

WASHINGTON — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez didn’t join the parade of lawmakers ripping Wells Fargo Tuesday for bilking its own customers — she demanded to know why it backed companies that cage children and build oil pipelines.

The freshman congresswoman from the Bronx cited a number of articles that accused Wells Fargo of funding things like pipelines through the Dakotas, the private prison companies that run detention centers at the border for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and predatory payday loans.

Noting that Wells Fargo CEO Timothy Sloan said his bank does not put profits over people, Ocasio-Cortez asked if it was true the company backs the businesses she mentioned.

Sloan focused on the prison companies, Geo Group and CoreCivic, saying the bank decided two years ago to “exit the two relationships.”

Such facilities came under intense scrutiny last summer after news broke about the Trump administration’s ramped up policy of separating migrant children and parents at the border, and detaining them in harsh conditions.

“Why was the bank involved in the caging of children and financing the caging of children to begin with?” Ocasio-Cortez asked Sloan.

“I don’t know how to answer that question because we weren’t,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the bank later added that Wells Fargo had cut ties with CoreCivic and that the bank’s obligations to Geo Group were expiring. She said the bank condemned the separations as “anathema to our nation’s values” at the time. A Geo Group spokeswoman said the company has never housed unaccompanied minors.

“This is a deliberate lie driven by an agenda aimed at abolishing ICE, knowing that we have nothing to do with passing, setting, or advocating for or against immigration laws or policies,” the spokeswoman said.

Ocasio-Cortez also brought up leaks from the infamous Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline, asking whether, since Wells Fargo was “a major investor” and lender, it should be liable for damages they cause.