Wells Fargo Sued by Ex-Manager Who Said Bank Faked Diversity

Wells Fargo & Co. was sued by a former manager who says he was fired for pushing the bank to create a more diverse workforce and objecting to its practice of interviewing minority applicants for jobs that were already filled.

Joseph Bruno claims in the lawsuit filed Thursday he tried for years — and often failed — to persuade the bank’s executives to live up to the company’s stated diversity and inclusion goals.

He was the first person to publicly claim in 2022 that Wells Fargo had been conducting sham interviews of minority candidates. The bank did this, he said, so executives could say they were making concrete efforts to diversify its workforce.

The allegations raised by him and others led the US Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into whether the bank had violated civil-rights laws. The probe was later closed without charges being brought, the bank said in a regulatory filing.

Wells Fargo didn’t immediately respond outside regular business hours to a request for comment. The bank has previously called Bruno’s claims baseless and has said the fake interviews weren’t widespread, if they happened at all.

Bruno, who lives in Florida, was a financial adviser who rose through the ranks to become a regional manager overseeing 14 Wells Fargo branches, according to the complaint.

He claims that over the years, his supervisors pushed back on his efforts to hire more minority applicants, telling him that he was going too far.

In 2021, the bank fired Bruno after alleging that he retaliated against an employee who he claims accused him of favoring Black applicants, according to the suit. His complaint accuses the bank of defaming him with untrue descriptions of his ouster.

Bruno says he was also criticized by one of the bank’s regional presidents for not “sufficiently” defending Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer Charles Scharf against accusations of racism that erupted after a Zoom talk with Black employees.

During the talk, Scharf asserted the bank’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, but added: “The unfortunate reality is that there is a very limited pool of black talent to recruit from.” Scharf later apologized.

When Bruno initially complained that he was wrongfully fired, the bank tried to force him into closed-door arbitration proceedings. But last month, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said he could pursue his claims in open court.

In the suit, Bruno alleges discrimination and retaliation in violation of federal civil rights law and seeks unspecified monetary damages.

The case is Bruno v. Wells Fargo & Company, 25-cv-10808, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Top photo: A Wells Fargo bank branch in New York. Bloomberg.