Wells Fargo is waiting for a federal judge's decision on whether the city of Baltimore can sue the bank for predatory lending.

Reuters reports that U.S. District Judge Benson Legg said he will rule in the coming days about whether to allow a trial.

The bank's spokesman tells the news service that there's no evidence it targeted subprime loans to black home-buyers, but former employees say otherwise in a sworn testimony for the city.

One of them, Tony Paschal, said in his statement that Wells Fargo loan officers referred to blacks as "mud people" who "don't pay their bills." Another former employee said workers used to talk about how they were on a "stagecoach to hell."

Wells Fargo's attorney dismisses them as "disgruntled former employees" and said the foreclosures were caused by illness, divorce and job loss, not subprime lending.