Criminal accusations were flying at Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO John Stumpf at a congressional hearing Thursday at which he admitted some retail banking workers stole money from customers in a phony account scam.

As Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committee claimed Stumpf and his executive team could be guilty of crimes from fraud to racketeering to identity theft, Republican Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling opened the hearing by saying:

“Fraud is fraud and theft is theft. All culpable individuals must be held accountable.”

The lead Democrat on the committee, Maxine Waters, said she will introduce legislation to break up Wells Fargo and possibly other big banks.

“Wells Fargo is too big to manage,” she said.

Stumpf seemed unfazed by the accusations that criminal activities by him and other Wells Fargo leaders led to workers creating over 2 million phony bank accounts and credit cards.

The company’s chief denied the scam represents the bank’s corporate culture.

“This is a holding company that made some mistakes. Wells Fargo is a great corporate citizen,” Stumpf said.

Several congressmen said Congress needs to investigate whether cross-selling scams are widespread in banking.

While Stumpf said he first learned about allegations of improper sales practices pressure in 2013, New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney said there is evidence in a Montana lawsuit that six employees were fired for failing to participate in the scam in 2007.

Maloney also said it was suspicious that Stumpf sold $13 million in Wells stock in 2013 (his largest sale ever) shortly after reports of the scam first surfaced in the press.

Florida GOP Rep. Bill Posey said Well Fargo’s actions will harm consumer confidence in the banking industry for years to come.

Kentucky Republican Andy Barr predicted the Wells fraud will lead to a regulatory onslaught that will unfairly hurt small banks.

Stumpf said that among the 5,300 workers axed for participating in the fraud, the highest level Wells executive was an area manager.

While Stumpf said Wells is not too big to manage, outspoken Los Angeles Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman said the company and the other big banks are.

“It’s time to break them up,” said Sherman.

Many expected before the hearing that Republican leaders of the committee would use the hearing to attack the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, probably their least favorite agency in the federal government.

Hensarling’s criticism was oblique and didn’t mention the agency by name, but Scott Garrett, chairman on the subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, went full-force:

“The CFPB was asleep at the wheel. They completely blew it.”

Despite accusations that whistle-blowers who alerted regulators to the scam were fired, Stumpf said Wells has a non-retaliation policy.

He denied Wells has or had sales quotas.

“We have sales goals,” Stumpf said.

Illinois Democratic Rep. Bill Foster said the Wells Fargo fraud should be a case study of corporate mismanagement in every business school in the country.

At this hearing and at another held in the Senate Banking Committee last week, congressional Republicans have been more unified in outrage with Democrats over the Wells Fargo fraud than they ever were on the Wall Street misdeeds that helped precipitate the financial crisis.