The Royal Bank of Canada said it had evidence that its former chief financial officer had had an intimate relationship with a colleague, which she didn’t disclose, citing exchanges between the 2 in text messages and emails.
Canada’s largest lender filed a response and counterclaim within the wrongful dismissal lawsuit on Friday submitted earlier this month by Nadine Ahn, the manager who was dismissed in April after 25 years on the bank.
The grievance states that Ahn developed an in depth personal relationship with a colleague, Ken Mason, a senior executive within the bank’s corporate treasury group, as early as 2013 and continued it until she left the bank.
The document provides a remarkably detailed look into the bank’s alleged relationship, which spanned greater than a decade, including descriptions of how the 2 bankers incessantly met outside of labor for cocktails, celebrated anniversaries, exchanged romantic poems and called one another by pet names – “Prickly Pear” for Ahn and “KD” for Mason.
In their text messages, they “fantasised about a life together, such as reading together in bed,” in keeping with the RBC court filing.
“Ms. Ahn forwarded romantic poems to Mr. Mason expressing that she had instantly fallen in love with Mr. Mason,” the filing states. “Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason continued to meet regularly outside of the office during this time and arranged to meet for lunch on August 18, 2017 to celebrate their ‘fourth anniversary.'”
The close relationship continued even after her promotion to CFO in 2021, in keeping with the documents. RBC alleges Ahn used her position at the corporate to orchestrate promotions and raises for Mason, an endeavor Mason allegedly known as “Project Ken” in a document he wrote. She also passed confidential information to Mason, the bank claims, resembling a draft of a speech by CEO Dave McKay.
Read more: RBC’s former CFO says she hoped for the CEO job before the bank fired her
The filing states that RBC had no access to the messages “except to the extent that Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason copied personal messages into RBC’s systems.”
Lawyers for Mason and Ahn didn’t reply to requests for comment. Ahn said in her lawsuit that she and Mason were friends but denied that they had a romantic relationship. Mason, who filed a separate wrongful termination lawsuit against RBC, also denied a romantic relationship and said the bank would have treated her otherwise in the event that they were each men.
‘I really like you too’
The bank cites “intimate communication” exchanged between the 2 via text message. As an example, it states: “On March 11, 2019, Ms. Ahn texted Mr. Mason, ‘I love you.’ Mr. Mason replied 15 seconds later, ‘I love you too.'”
The two allegedly used calendar invitations to rearrange “liquidity meetings,” which the bank says is a code word for cocktails. At one in all those meetings, the 2 scribbled notes about their drink orders and other topics resembling “concert, evening out, winery” on a coaster from Canoe, an upscale restaurant in Toronto’s financial district. Mason had the coaster encased in plexiglass and kept it in his office, RBC alleges.
The bank said it began the investigation in March after an anonymous informant claimed Ahn and Mason were seen “hugging and kissing and exiting the elevators” on the Fairmont Royal York, a hotel next to RBC headquarters.
Bank officials “immediately launched a thorough investigation by outside counsel,” RBC spokeswoman Gillian McArdle said in an emailed statement Friday. “We were disappointed to learn that the allegations are true.”
The newspaper Globe and Mail had previously reported on RBC’s court filing.
In her lawsuit, Ahn complained concerning the way Royal Bank conducted the investigation, the speed with which she was fired after being confronted with the allegations on April 5, and the damage to her status when the bank issued a press release the identical day.
“Contrary to Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason’s pleas, the investigation found that an undisclosed close personal relationship existed and that Ms. Ahn had abused her authority as CFO to directly benefit Mr. Mason,” McArdle said. “Because she was a named officer, we were obligated to disclose.”
Ahn is looking for nearly 50 million Canadian dollars ($37 million U.S.) in wages and damages in his lawsuit, while Mason is suing Royal Bank for greater than 20 million Canadian dollars in wages and damages.
In its counterclaim against Ahn, RBC is looking for roughly C$4.5 million for “overcompensated” amounts paid to Mason and the recovery of bonuses paid to Ahn, in addition to other damages and costs.
RBC’s filing said that when one other worker raised concerns about Mason’s salary, Ahn terminated that person’s employment without cause. The bank said the previous worker “sought compensation from RBC for the termination of his employment in bad faith, as a result of Ms. Ahn’s conduct.”
