Royal Bank of Canada’s former chief financial officer, Nadine Ang, said the bank used a story of an undisclosed relationship to “fabricate” a reason to fire her, according to documents filed Thursday in Ontario Superior Court.
“RBC’s conclusions are based on speculation and conjecture and are a blatant and deliberate attempt to fabricate a just cause termination,” said the court filing, which was reviewed by Bloomberg.
Additionally, Ang’s lawyer, Mark Fletcher, said in a separate statement Thursday that the bank had “selectively quoted” Ang’s communications with former RBC finance executive Ken Mason and “attempted to embarrass Ang.” [and] He “threatened” the former CFO.
“The bank’s policy was deliberately used to attack the reputation of a successful woman who delivered record profits during her tenure,” Fletcher said in a statement seen by the Globe and Mail and Reuters. “We have no policy prohibiting workplace friendships and this is just what this case is about.”
Ang reiterated his claim in a 20-page filing Thursday that he and Mason were “good friends” and nothing more. The filing, which responds to a counterclaim RBC filed last month against Ang and Mason, reiterates its conclusion that the executives’ relationship was more than that.
An RBC spokesman declined to comment on Thursday’s filing and referred Bloomberg and the Globe and Mail to earlier statements the bank made on the matter.
RBC fired Messrs. Ang and Mason in April, citing “undisclosed intimate personal relationships.” Each executive sued the bank for wrongful termination. RBC countersued, seeking to reverse excessive compensation.
Origins of KD
In its counterclaim, RBC cited messages between Ang and Mason as well as memorabilia showing the pair called each other pet names.
According to the bank, the 43-page online “love book” that Mason allegedly ordered and sent to the office contained a note that read, “Prickly Pear and KD lived happily ever after!”
Nicknames are common in RBC’s culture, Ang argued in Thursday’s filing. In fact, Mason’s nickname, KD, stands for Kraft Dinner, a Canadian version of macaroni and cheese. It was intended as a joke about Mason’s “British tendencies,” according to the filing. Ang’s nickname, “Prickly Pear,” is said to refer to her sometimes aggressive personality.
In her lawsuit, Anne denied any knowledge of the poem that RBC claims Mason wrote in her honor, nor did she know of the “love book” or that Mason had kept the coaster he used to meet her at a Toronto restaurant in May 2016 covered in plexiglass.
Ahn alleged on Thursday that she experienced “discriminatory treatment” as a woman. She said that a senior male at the bank was close friends with a male subordinate. The male colleagues would socialize with each other outside the office and sometimes vacation together. And one of the friends was sometimes in charge of compensation decisions that affected the friend. Ahn said she experienced different levels of oversight. Moreover, RBC policy did not require her to disclose friendships at work, Ahn added.
Insomnia and Shakespeare
In her complaint, Ahn disputes some of the relationship messages RBC used to make the case that her friendship with Mason crossed a line.
“I’d like to meet but don’t want to pressure you,” Ang allegedly wrote in an email to Mason at 2:16 a.m. in 2015.
Ahn’s lawyers argued Thursday that she wrote the emails at a time when she was suffering from stress and insomnia. They also said the text messages in which she said she loved him were a joke in response to Mason teasing her and “were taken out of context by RBC,” the lawsuit said.
RBC claimed last month that Anne had forwarded Mason a romantic poem “expressing her love for him”.
Anne’s lawyers said Thursday that she had been quoting William Shakespeare, adding that in other messages she had quoted lines from “War and Peace.”
“It is not uncommon for colleagues and friends to read and discuss books together,” Ahn said in the complaint.
“Project Ken”
Ang also denied any knowledge Thursday of “Project Ken,” a scheme purportedly to help Mason gain greater responsibility and the associated compensation at the bank. One element of the plan was allegedly to help Mason get promoted to vice president and head of RBC’s capital and long-term treasury division in November 2023.
RBC claimed last month that Mr Mason got the role because Mr Ang “ignored” objections from senior bank executives who report to him.
“The bank has a lot of checks and balances in place to ensure that no one can unilaterally make compensation decisions,” Fletcher said Thursday. “Nadine has been supportive when we’ve consulted her on these decisions because it makes sense.”
This contradicts RBC’s lawsuit, which alleges that Ang “circled Mason’s name on a piece of paper and instructed the bank’s treasurer to promote him.”.
“Mason has earned a compensation increase and promotion based on his performance and achievements,” Fletcher said Thursday.
Mason’s lawyer did not respond to Bloomberg’s request for comment.
“ambush”
In Thursday’s filing, Ang’s lawyers argued that Ang did not lie about his friendship with Mason when outside investigators interviewed him on his final day at RBC.
Ahn was “ambushed”, his lawyers said, adding that he had “answered the best he could” to investigators’ questions.
But Ang on Thursday disputed RBC’s assertion that it had fired employees in 2022 who had relationships “substantially identical” to his own.
“Unlike the employees mentioned above, Ms. Ann and Mr. Mason were not romantically involved,” Thursday’s filing said. “Ms. Ann’s friendship with Mr. Mason did not pose a conflict of interest (real or perceived).”
