SAN FRANCISCO—Wells Fargo & Co. has been sued by a former regional manager who alleges he was fired for pressing the bank to follow through on its stated diversity goals and for objecting to what he described as sham interviews of minority candidates for jobs that had already been filled, according to Bloomberg reporting.
The lawsuit, filed by Joseph Bruno, claims he spent years urging senior executives to build a more diverse workforce, often meeting resistance. Bruno was the first to publicly allege in 2022 that Wells Fargo conducted interviews with minority candidates to give the appearance of progress on diversity, allegations that later contributed to a U.S. Department of Justice criminal investigation. The probe was ultimately closed without charges, the bank disclosed in a regulatory filing, Bloomberg said.
Bruno, a Florida resident, rose from financial adviser to regional manager overseeing 14 Wells Fargo branches, according to the complaint. He alleges supervisors pushed back against his hiring efforts and that the bank fired him in 2021 after accusing him of retaliating against an employee—an allegation he disputes. The lawsuit also claims Wells Fargo defamed him by providing false explanations for his termination. The bank has previously called Bruno’s claims baseless and said any fake interviews were not widespread, if they occurred at all, Bloomberg noted.
The complaint further alleges Bruno was criticized by a regional president for not adequately defending CEO Charles Scharf after backlash from a Zoom meeting with Black employees, during which Scharf said, “The unfortunate reality is that there is a very limited pool of black talent to recruit from,” a remark he later apologized for.
After Wells Fargo sought to push Bruno’s claims into arbitration, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ruled last month that he could pursue the case in open court. Bruno is seeking unspecified monetary damages for alleged discrimination and retaliation under federal civil-rights law.