Nadine Ahn, a former CFO of RBC, disputes allegations that she had an inappropriate relationship with a colleague which led to her dismissal by the bank.Supplied
Former Royal Bank of Canada chief financial officer Nadine Ahn is doubling down on her claim that the bank wrongfully terminated her, asserting in a new court filing that she did not have a romantic relationship with a colleague and did not abuse her power to advance his career.
Lawyers for Ms. Ahn filed a 20-page reply to RBC’s allegations with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, claiming she and Ken Mason, a vice-president in the bank’s treasury division who was terminated on the same day as Ms. Ahn in April, were simply “workplace friends.”
RBC said it fired Ms. Ahn with cause in April after an internal investigation, spurred by an anonymous complaint, concluded that she had an undisclosed, intimate relationship with Mr. Mason for more than a decade, and had used her authority as the bank’s CFO to push through pay raises and a promotion for him. In a court filing, the bank provided detailed accounts of Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason’s communications, in which they used pet names for each other, celebrated the anniversary of the first time they had drinks, and appeared to profess their mutual love.
In Thursday’s reply, lawyers for Ms. Ahn repeatedly denied RBC’s allegations, and said she did not violate RBC’s policies. It also says she received “differential treatment” as a woman, compared with senior male leaders at the bank who had close friendships with other men who reported to them, and for whom they made compensation decisions, which she alleges did not draw the same scrutiny.
The latest salvo escalates a damaging public dispute that has provided a rare glimpse into the inner decision-making and tensions at Canada’s largest bank. The filing made by Ms. Ahn’s lawyers seeks to place responsibility for Mr. Mason’s pay increases and promotion on his superiors in the treasury division.
Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason have each sued the bank for wrongful termination, seeking more than $70-million in combined damages. RBC has made a counterclaim that seeks to claw back compensation and bonus pay from Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason.
A lawyer for Ms. Ahn said in an e-mailed statement that the bank has selectively used information to “manufacture a case against her.”
“The bank’s policies have been selectively weaponized to attack the reputation of a successful woman who oversaw record profits during her tenure,” said Mark Fletcher, a lawyer representing Ms. Ahn but not Mr. Mason. “There is no policy against workplace friendships, and that’s all this was.”
Mr. Fletcher also said that Mr. Mason “earned his compensation increases and promotion with performance and merit,” and that Ms. Ahn supported decisions made by executives in the treasury group “because they made sense.”
A spokesperson for RBC, Gillian McArdle, declined to comment on Thursday’s court filing, reiterating a prior statement from the bank that said Ms. Ahn was terminated after its investigation “showed there was an undisclosed close personal relationship, and that Ms. Ahn misused her authority as CFO to directly benefit Mr. Mason.”
The latest court filing says that Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason joked together, and gave each other nicknames – she was “Prickly Pear” because she could be loud and abrasive; he was “KD,” a reference to Kraft Dinner, allegedly a jest about him having “English tendencies” despite his Italian heritage.
Her lawyers assert that their references to their anniversary date were not romantic. And she denies any knowledge of a poem Mr. Mason wrote that referred to her, a 43-page “LoveBook” he allegedly ordered that referred to them, or a coaster he kept encased in plexiglass from one of their meetings for drinks at an upscale Toronto restaurant.
She also denies any knowledge of a plan that Mr. Mason developed to advance his career and increase his pay, titled “Project Ken,” after RBC alleged in a court filing that “Ms. Ahn supported him in realizing that plan.”
Her lawyers allege that a 2:16 a.m. e-mail she sent to Mr. Mason in 2015, in which she expressed that she was sleepless and wrote, “I want to see you but I don’t want to pressure you,” came at a time when she was under stress, sad and suffering from insomnia. It also says a text message exchange in which she wrote “I love you” was a joking response to Mr. Mason mocking her, “and is taken out of context by RBC.”
In reply to RBC’s allegation that Ms. Ahn forwarded romantic poetry to Mr. Mason, “expressing that she had fallen in love” with him, Ms. Ahn’s lawyers said she was quoting Shakespeare, and that she had also quoted military dialogue from the novel War and Peace in other messages. “It is not uncommon for co-workers and friends to read books together and to discuss them,” the filing says.
The filing also addresses RBC’s allegation that Ms. Ahn terminated a colleague in 2022 for a “substantially identical” offence. She says the RBC employee, who is not named, “was in an undisclosed romantic relationship with a subordinate employee” and admitted to the relationship after initially lying about it.
“Unlike the above noted employees, Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason were not in a romantic relationship. Ms. Ahn’s friendship with Mr. Mason was not a conflict of interest (real or perceived),” the filing says.
Her lawyers also deny RBC’s allegation that Ms. Ahn was not truthful or forthright when questioned by the bank’s third-party investigator, repeating an assertion from an earlier court filing that she was “ambushed,” and adding that she answered “to the best of her ability.”
At the core of Ms. Ahn’s claim is her assertion that she alone did not push through pay raises or a promotion to vice-president for Mr. Mason. Her filing alleges that RBC’s former treasurer asked her to take part in compensation discussions, and supported increases in written communications, while a colleague of Mr. Mason’s received the same increase. It also says she “reasonably supported” a decision by RBC’s current treasurer, Jason Drysdale, to promote Mr. Mason to vice-president, “but she did not make the decision for him.”
That directly contradicts RBC’s claim in a court filing that Ms. Ahn “circled Mr. Mason’s name on a piece of paper and instructed” the treasurer to promote him. The bank alleges that the November, 2023, promotion decision “was effectively made by Ms. Ahn.”