NEW YORK — Wells Fargo’s board of directors has blamed the bank’s most senior management for creating an “aggressive sales culture” at Wells that eventually led to the bank’s scandal over millions of unauthorized accounts.

The results of the investigation, released this morning and conducted by the law firm Shearman & Sterling, also called for millions of dollars in compensation to be clawed back from former CEO John Stumpf and community bank executive Carrie Tolstedt.

The 113-page report has been in the works since September, when Wells acknowledged that its employees opened up to 2 million checking and credit card accounts without customers’ authorization. Trying to meet unrealistic sales goals, Wells employees even created phony email addresses to sign customers up for online banking.

Many current and former employees have talked of intense and constant pressure from managers to sell and open accounts, and some said it pushed them into unethical behavior.

The bank has already paid $185 million in fines to federal and local authorities and settled a $110 million class-action lawsuit.