Royal Bank of Canada has laid out in court documents the details of why it fired its former CFO and another employee for allegedly being in an intimate relationship that led to conflicts of interest.
In the filings made Friday and a week earlier, Canada’s biggest bank says there is overwhelming evidence that former CFO Nadine Ahn and Ken Mason had breached company policy and their firing was justified.
RBC was responding to lawsuits launched by both Ahn and Mason earlier in August seeking tens of millions of dollars in compensation for wrongful dismissal.
Ahn and Mason claimed in their lawsuit that there was no merit to claims they were in a close relationship or that Ahn used her position to unduly advance Mason’s career, and that the accusations were based on speculation and a lack of evidence.
In its response, RBC said it launched an investigation after it received an anonymous whistleblower complaint that someone had seen the two kissing and hugging while exiting elevators at the Fairmont Royal York hotel in downtown Toronto.
It says that along with other evidence, the investigation found the two had sent thousands of messages including ones where they planned anniversary drinks, and used pet names for each other and said they loved each other.
