A SCHWAB JOB
Published in the Dec. 6, 2025 issue.
It’s not often you see a Fortune 500 company, much less a household name like Charles Schwab & Co., on the Mono County Superior Court agenda.
But this week, it happened.
A Mammoth Lakes couple, Anthony and Diana Robusto, alleged Wednesday morning that Charles Schwab & Co. breached its contractual obligations by refusing to reimburse them for a fraudulent $974 wire transfer from their brokerage account.
The firm did not send a representative to appear in court.
Although Schwab refunded a separate, smaller fraudulent withdrawal from the couple’s checking account, the brokerage loss was denied. The plaintiffs argued that Schwab’s own “Security Guarantee” required reimbursement because they did not voluntarily disclose personal login credentials.
Their accounts were compromised by a scammer who made unauthorized withdrawals from both their brokerage and checking accounts, taking $974 from the former and $300 from the latter.
Schwab later refunded the checking-account loss but refused to reimburse the brokerage loss, despite both withdrawals arising from the same fraudulent breach.
According to the plaintiffs, Schwab justified the discrepancy by explaining via email the receiving bank for the checking account funds returned the money, while the receiving bank for the brokerage transfer did not.
In testimony, Mr. Robusto said the scam occurred after Mrs. Robusto received a phone call appearing to originate from Schwab’s own published emergency number. The caller claimed to be a Schwab employee.
The caller said there was supposed suspicious activity at a Best Buy store in Detroit and instructed Mrs. Robusto to click a link and enter a security code texted to her. Believing the call was legitimate, she followed those instructions, unknowingly granting the hacker access to their accounts.
The couple reported the fraud to Schwab immediately, on the day the scam occured, June 2.
Mr. Robusto asserted that they did not provide passwords, PINs, or login credentials, and that Schwab’s guarantee, as posted on its website, promises reimbursement for unauthorized activity when the customer has not compromised their access information.
Schwab assigned an investigator who corresponded with the couple but refused to provide any written statement explaining the denial of the brokerage reimbursement, according to the couple’s testimony.
Presiding Judge Stanley Eller expressed sympathy for the couple, and said even government agencies and court staff regularly fall prey to highly convincing fraudulent communications.
He called the situation “incredibly unfortunate” and said it was part of a larger national problem, but did not promise a tidy resolution.
“I don’t know whether Schwab’s guarantee […] means that if you’re the victim of a crime and Schwab wasn’t involved, then it doesn’t fall under the security guarantee because the customer is the one who entered the information that allowed the hacker to access the account,” he said.
He placed the matter under submission so he could read through the contract and do some research, but said brokerage fraud and banking fraud are governed by different regulatory frameworks, which may also explain Schwab’s differing treatment of the accounts.
Once all documents are received and reviewed, the court has 90 days to administer a ruling.
