Gary Cohn, Trump's former top economic adviser, was reportedly approached by Wells Fargo board members about becoming the bank's CEO

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Gary Cohn, Trump's former top economic adviser, was reportedly approached by Wells Fargo board members about becoming the bank's CEO

gary cohn

Drew Angerer/Getty images

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  • Wells Fargo board members approached Gary Cohn about becoming the bank's CEO soon after he stepped down as President Donald Trump's top economic adviser, according to the New York Post.
  • The report said that while there is no active CEO search for Wells Fargo, board members are growing impatient with current leader Tim Sloan.
  • Sloan took over after Wells Fargo's explosive fraudulent accounts scandal, but numerous other scandals have roiled the bank during his tenure.

Gary Cohn, the former top economic adviser to President Donald Trump and Goldman Sachs executive, was approached by Wells Fargo board members about the bank's CEO position, according to a new report.

The New York Post said Wednesday that Wells Fargo board members met with Cohn about the position soon after his departure from the White House in March.

After an event Monday, Cohn denied that he was still in talks.

"Absolutely not," Cohn said. "Absolutely not - and you can put that on the record."

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The reported overtures come after Wells Fargo has been hit by a string of scandals and public relations messes, most notably the fraudulent accounts scandal that emerged in 2016 and led to the ouster of John Stumpf as the bank's CEO.

According to the Post, Wells Fargo board members are growing tired of Stumpf's successor, Tim Sloan, amid several new scandals, ranging from a computer glitch that led to customers losing homes to employees altering dinner orders to get reimbursed.

While Wells Fargo is not formally searching for a new CEO, the Post said, some board members are looking around. Wells Fargo denied that it is looking to replace Sloan.

Cohn's post-White House future remains up in the air. The former Goldman Sachs COO did not elaborate on possible future employment during Monday's event but said there were "interesting opportunities" in the works.

The former economic adviser was back in headlines over the past few weeks after veteran journalist Bob Woodward's book on the Trump White House delved deeply into Cohn's relationship with Trump.

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The book, "Fear: Trump in the White House," detailed numerous clashes between Cohn and Trump, even relaying a story about the then-adviser stealing documents from Trump's desk to prevent the president from pulling the US out of important trade deals.

Cohn, Trump, and the White House have all pushed back on the contents of the book - to varying degrees.

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