Royal Bank of Canada's former chief financial officer is suing for wrongful dismissal, arguing the bank made a "devastating" error when it fired her over a personal relationship with a co-worker — and denying that the two were romantic partners.
Nadine Ahn filed the legal action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, saying she suffered "palpable reputational harm" and "public humiliation" when the bank sacked her in April. She's asking for nearly C$50 million ($36 million) in pay and damages.
RBC said on April 5 it had terminated Ahn for violating its code of conduct because she had been involved in an "undisclosed close personal relationship with another employee which led to preferential treatment of the employee including promotion and compensation increases."
Ahn's lawsuit describes how Dave McKay, the bank's chief executive officer, sent her a text message on the evening of April 4, asking her to attend a meeting the next morning.
When she showed up, McKay wasn't there, according to her court filing. Instead, she was blindsided by questions from a lawyer about her relationship with Ken Mason, who worked in the bank's corporate treasury group, the documents say. Her laptop and cell phones were seized.
At that meeting, "RBC's investigator accused Ms. Ahn of providing Mr. Mason with preferential treatment and insinuated that they were having an affair," according to her statement of claim. "Ms. Ahn pleads that RBC's allegations are patently false."
Ahn and Mason had been friends since about 2013, long before she become CFO, according to the filing. RBC's code didn't require Ahn to disclose a workplace friendship, she says — and in any event, "her friendship with Mr. Mason was not concealed from RBC in any way."
Mason, who was also fired, also filed suit against Canada's largest bank. His statement of claim says the bank "ambushed Ken with a discriminatory and inappropriate/unreasonable workplace investigation meeting" that was "unfair, biased and procedurally flawed."
