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Ex-Equifax CEO Gets Trolled at Senate Banking Hearing

Monopoly character in top hat and mustache sat behind Richard Smith on second day of hearings

A protester dressed as Monopoly character Rich Uncle Pennybags sat behind former Equifax CEO Richard Smith. (banking.senate.gov)
A protester dressed as Monopoly character Rich Uncle Pennybags sat behind former Equifax CEO Richard Smith. (banking.senate.gov)

The Monopoly logo character known as Rich Uncle Pennybags attended a hearing Wednesday to sit behind Richard Smith, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Equifax.

A protester with the advocacy organization Public Citizen trolled Smith while dressed in a fake mustache and top hat.

Smith was a witness on a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee panel on Equifax’s data breach.

Wednesday was Smith’s second of three scheduled appearances this week before congressional committees.

The troll was visible on C-SPAN whenever Smith spoke, sitting directly behind his left shoulder.

Rich Uncle Pennybags Look-Alike Trolls Equifax Hearing

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Rich Uncle Pennybags, later identified as activist Amanda Werner, made facial expressions, stroked a handlebar mustache, and appeared to be taking notes, all while extremely engaged in every exchange between Smith and the senators on the panel.

“The surprise appearance is part of a campaign organized by Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform to draw attention to forced arbitration rip-off clauses, used by Equifax, Wells Fargo and other financial companies to evade accountability and take advantage of consumers,” Public Citizen said in a news release Wednesday.

(Screenshot)
Pennybags at one point wiped his face with fake money. (senate.banking.gov)

At one point, just under two hours in, Rich Uncle Pennybags wiped his forehead with what appeared to be giant paper money. The troll also took out a monocle a few times.

Smith was testifying on the theft of 145.5 million consumers’ personal information and the nearly $2 million in stock sold by the company’s executives between the discovery of the breach and public disclosure of it.

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