Phil Arballo ran twice for Congress, unsuccessfully, before taking a job at the Charles Schwab investment company branch in posh Los Altos, where he was fired because his boss discovered he had run as a Democrat, he claimed in a lawsuit filed this week.
Schwab in a statement Friday called the lawsuit’s allegations “unwarranted,” and said it would respond to them in court.
Arballo ran for U.S. House of Representatives seats in the Central Valley in 2020 and 2022. In 2020, he won 46% of the vote in the Valley’s 22nd Congressional District, losing to Republican Devin Nunes, who took 54%, election records show. Arballo also ran in the 2022 primary in the Valley’s 13th District, losing with 17% of the vote.
On Friday, Arballo, who now divides his time between Palo Alto and Fresno, denied a claim that he had worked as a pornography producer in 2023 before taking the position at Schwab. But he said the allegation came up in a meeting with his boss just before he was fired.
Finance-industry regulatory records show Arballo worked three stints at Fresno financial firms from 2016 to 2020. According to the lawsuit filed Monday in Santa Clara County Superior court, Arballo in late 2023 decided to return to work as a financial advisor.
In September of last year, according to the lawsuit, he was hired at the Schwab office in Los Altos, where median household income is $240,094.
There, Arballo’s boss was branch manager Rob Boyd, who, the lawsuit claimed, “would frequently speak about conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination stances” consistent with opposition to the Democratic party.
Boyd did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Within a few months of Arballo’s hiring, Boyd called him into a meeting where another Schwab employee was present, the lawsuit said. Boyd asked Arballo why he had not disclosed his bids for political office, and referred to news articles about Arballo’s “run for Congress as a Democrat challenging well-known Republican, Devin Nunes,” the lawsuit claimed. Arballo responded that he did not think he had needed to reveal his political campaigns “as they were not relevant to his career in finance,” the lawsuit said.
An article that appeared on a Fresno-based website in March 2023 claimed Arballo had touted on social media his work as a producer and casting agent for a pornography company called “Next 2 Nuthin’ Production$.” In a phone interview Friday with this news organization, Arballo denied the report, saying he had “no involvement whatsoever with a pornography company” at any time. Arballo, who continued his political involvement after his primary loss, said he believed the porn-related allegation was “a political kind of move from an opponent at the time.”
Arballo said the article had come up in the meeting with Boyd and the other Schwab employee, but he believed the emphasis in their questioning of him was on articles about his political activities.
Two days after the meeting, Schwab fired Arballo, the lawsuit said. Boyd notified the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that Arballo was let go over “personal conduct,” the lawsuit alleged.
Arballo, 45, told this news organization that he was not given a reason for his termination.
In the lawsuit, Arballo denied engaging in any personal conduct leading to his firing other than having run for office as a Democrat and revealing he had anxiety. His fidgeting appeared to annoy Boyd, and played a role in his firing, the lawsuit claimed.
Arballo’s lawsuit, under his legal first name Felipe, accused Boyd and Schwab of wrongfully terminating him, retaliating against him over his political engagement and discriminating against him over his purported disability.
Arballo now must disclose to prospective employers that he was fired from Schwab, and although he has sought new employment, the lawsuit said, “no one has hired him.”
He is seeking unspecified damages, and a court order giving him his job back.