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OREGON HOUSE, California — In a small town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, a religious organization called the Fellowship of Friendship has built an elaborate 1,200-acre building filled with art and ornate architecture.

Believing that a higher consciousness can be reached by embracing the fine arts and culture, 200 miles from the Fellowship’s base in Oregon House, California, the religious sect has also found a place in a business unit at Google.

The Fellowship’s presence in the business unit was unusual, even in Google’s freelance office culture, which encouraged employees to voice their opinions and pursue their own projects. According to a lawsuit filed by Kevin Lloyd, a 34-year-old former Google video producer, 12 Fellowship members and close relatives worked for Google Developer Studio, or GDS, which produces videos showcasing the company’s technologies.

Many others work at company events, registration desks, take photos, play music, give massages and serve wine. According to the lawsuit, Google regularly purchased wine for these events from an Oregon House winery owned by the Fellow.

Mr Lloyd claimed he was fired last year for complaining about the influence of the religious sect. His case also named the Advanced Systems Group, or ASG, the company that sent Mr. Lloyd to Google as a contractor. Many of the Google Developer Studio have joined the team as contractors through the ABO, including many members of the Fellowship.

Mr Lloyd’s lawsuit in the California Supreme Court in August accuses Google and ASG of violating a California employment law that protects workers from discrimination. It is in the exploration stage.

The New York Times supported many of the claims in the lawsuit through interviews with eight current and former employees of the Google business and review of publicly available information and other documents. These included a membership list for the Fellowship of Friends, Google spreadsheets detailing event budgets, and photos taken at those events.

“We have long-standing employee and supplier policies to prevent discrimination and conflicts of interest, and we take them seriously,” Google spokesperson Courtenay Mencini said in a statement. “It is illegal for us or for our suppliers to ask about employee religious beliefs, but we will of course thoroughly investigate these allegations for any irregularities or improper contract practices. If we find evidence of policy violations, we will take action.”

ASG’s president, Dave Van Hoy, said in a statement that his company believes in “the principles of openness, inclusion and equality for people of all races, religions, gender identities and above all, without discrimination.”

“We continue to reject Plaintiff’s baseless allegations and hope to vindicate ourselves in court soon.”

Founded in 1970 by Robert Earl Burton, a former teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Fellowship of Friendship describes itself as an organization “available to anyone interested in pursuing the work of spiritual awakening.” It claims to have 1,500 members worldwide and has approximately 500 to 600 members in and around its compound at Oregon House. Members are usually required to give 10 percent of their monthly earnings to the organization.

Mr. Burton based his teachings on the Fourth Way, a philosophy developed in the early 20th century by a Greek Armenian philosopher and one of his students. While most people move in “awake sleep” throughout life, they believed that a higher consciousness was possible. Burton taught that true consciousness can be attained through the embrace of the fine arts, drawing on what he describes as visits from the angelic incarnations of historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Walt Whitman.

At the organization’s Northern California campus, called Apollo, the Fellowship has staged operas, plays, and ballets; he ran critically acclaimed winery; and has collected art from around the world, including more than $11 million in Chinese antiques.

“They believe that in order to achieve Enlightenment you have to surround yourself with so-called higher impressions – what Robert Burton believes are the most beautiful things in life,” said journalist Jennings Brown, who recently made a podcast on the Fellowship.revelations” Mr. Burton described Apollo as the seed of a new civilization that would emerge after a global apocalypse.

Burton came under fire in 1984 when a former member filed a $2.75 million lawsuit alleging “forced and unlawful sexual seduction by Burton” of young men joining the organization. In 1996, another former member filed a lawsuit accusing Mr. Burton of sexually abusing him when he was younger. Both cases were resolved out of court.

In the same year, the Scholarship Chinese antiques collection sold at auction. In 2015, after the chief winemaker left the organization, the winery discontinued production. The fraternity’s president, Greg Holman, declined to comment for this article.

Google Developer Studio is managed by Peter Lubbers, a longtime Fellowship of Friends. A July 2019 Scholarship directory obtained by The Times lists him as a member. Former members have confirmed joining the Fellowship after moving from the Netherlands to the United States.

He is a director at Google, this role is usually one below vice president in the Google administration, and usually receives annual compensation in the highest six figures or lowest seven figures.

Previously, Mr. Lubbers worked for Kelly Services personnel company. Mr. Lloyd’s attorney, M. Catherine Jones, won a similar lawsuit against Kelly Services in 2008 on behalf of Lynn Noyes, arguing that the company was unable to promote her because she was not a Fellow. A California court awarded Ms. Noyes $6.5 million in damages.

Ms. Noyes said in an interview that Mr. Lubbers was among a large fellowship of Fellowship members from the Netherlands who worked for the company in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

According to his recently deleted LinkedIn profile, Mr. Lubbers worked as a software developer at Kelly Services prior to his tenure at Silicon Valley software giant Oracle. He joined Google in 2012, working on a team that promotes Google technology to outside software developers. In 2014, he helped create GDS, which produces videos promoting Google developer tools.

Kelly Services declined to comment on the case.

Under Mr. Lubbers, the group brought in several other members of the Brotherhood, including a video producer named Gabe Pannell. A 2015 photo It shows Mr. Lubbers uploaded to the Internet by Mr. Pannell’s father, and Mr. Burton, known in the Fellowship as “The Teacher” or “Our Beloved Teacher” with Mr. Pannell. A caption on the recently deleted photo calls Mr Pannell “a new student”.

Erik Johansen, a senior video producer who has worked for Google Developer Studio through ASG since 2015, echoed the allegations made in the lawsuit, saying that the team’s leadership had abused the recruiting system that brought workers as contractors.

“They were able to advance their own goals very quickly because they were able to recruit people with much less scrutiny and a much less rigorous recruitment process compared to when they were hired as full-time employees,” he said. “This meant that when all these people were brought from the foothills of the Sierras, no one was looking too closely.”

Mr Lloyd said he met with Mr Pannell twice after applying for the job and reported directly to Mr Pannell when he joined a 25-person Bay Area video production team within GDS in 2017. Almost half of this team, including Mr. Lubbers and Mr. Pannell, came from Oregon House.

According to the lawsuit, Google paid to install a state-of-the-art sound system in the Oregon House of a Fellow who worked as a sound designer for the team. Mr. Lubbers disputed this claim in a phone call, saying that the equipment was old and would have been discarded if the team had not sent him home.

The sound designer’s daughter also worked as a set designer on the team. Additional Fellowship members and relatives have been recruited as staff at Google events, including a photographer, a masseuse, Mr. Lubber’s wife, and his son, who works as a DJ at company parties.

The company, according to the lawsuit, served wine from Grant Marie, a winery in Oregon House operated by a Fellow who formerly ran the Fellowship’s winery, and from a person familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation.

“My personal religious beliefs are a private matter that is deeply addressed,” said Mr. Lubbers. “In all my years in tech, they never played a role in recruiting. I have always fulfilled my role by bringing in the right talent for the situation, that is, bringing in the right vendors for the job.”

He added that ABO, not Google, hires contractors for the GDS team, and that it’s good for him to “encourage people to apply for these roles.” And he said that in recent years the team has reached more than 250 people, including part-time workers.

Mr. Pannell said in a phone interview that the team brought in workers “from a circle of trusted friends and family with highly qualified backgrounds”, including graduates from the University of California at Berkeley.

In 2017 and 2018, according to the lawsuit, Mr. Pannell attended video shoots while intoxicated and occasionally threw things at the presenter when he was dissatisfied with a performance. Mr. Pannell said he didn’t remember the events and it didn’t sound like something he would have done. He also admitted that he had problems with alcohol and sought help.

According to the lawsuit, Mr. Pannell was made a full-time employee after spending seven months at Google. He was later promoted to senior producer and then executive producer, according to his deleted LinkedIn profile.

Mr Lloyd said he brought much of this to the attention of a manager within the team. However, he was repeatedly told not to pursue the matter as Mr. Lubbers is a strong name at Google and could lose his job in Mr. Lloyd’s case. He said he was fired in February 2021 and was not given a reason. Google said Mr Lubbers and Mr Pannell were fired due to performance issues.

Mr. Lloyd’s lawyer, Ms. Jones, argued that Google’s relationship with the ASG allowed Fellowship members to join the company without proper review. “That’s one of the ways the Brotherhood used the Kelly case,” she said. “They can get through the door without normal inspection.”

Mr Lloyd is seeking compensation for wrongful termination, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination and deliberately causing emotional distress. But he said he was concerned that Google was funding the Fellowship of Friends by doing so much with its members.

“Once you realize this, you are responsible,” said Mr. Lloyd. “You can’t look away.”