Nadine Ang is suing Royal Bank of Canada for wrongful termination.
The Royal Bank of Canada said an employee it fired for having an intimate relationship with its former chief financial officer was focused on using the alleged relationship to advance herself within the company.
The bank on Friday filed an answer and counterclaim against Ken Mason, a former employee in RBC’s finance department who was fired in April at the same time as then-Chief Financial Officer Nadine Ang.
Canada’s largest bank alleges that Mason and Ang had a close personal relationship for more than a decade. The bank said in court documents that the relationship crossed the line multiple times, including when Ang helped get Mason a big raise last year that raised his salary to nearly C$1.2 million ($888,000).
Mason and Ang are each suing RBC for wrongful termination.
“With Mr. Mason’s knowledge and at his request, Mr. Ang abused his authority as CFO to give Mr. Mason significant compensation increases and ultimately executive-level promotions as part of ‘Project Ken,’ which the two pursued together while they had a private, close personal relationship,” the bank said in its latest court documents.
A week ago, the bank made similar claims against Mr Ang.
Attorneys for Mason and Ang did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday afternoon. The lawsuit claims the two were just friends, not romantically involved. Ang said she suffered “obvious damage to her reputation” and “public humiliation” when the bank fired her. Mason said the bank would not have acted the same way if the women were men.
A representative for RBC declined to comment and pointed to an earlier statement on the matter. The bank previously said it had hired outside legal counsel to investigate after receiving an anonymous complaint in March that Ang and Mason had been seen together and were having an affair.
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The bank claims Mason’s total compensation for fiscal year 2023 will be C$1.18 million, a 70% increase from Ang’s compensation at the time he was promoted to CFO in November 2021.
Friday’s filing includes many of the same allegations RBC made in Ahn’s lawsuit, including that the two bankers met regularly for cocktails outside of work, called each other pet names, exchanged romantic poems and sent text messages saying they were in love.
When RBC confronted Mason with evidence of the undisclosed relationship on April 5, he denied it was intimate and said they were merely “business associates,” the bank said in court documents. Mason also said he was underpaid for his work and had asked for raises multiple times a year, the bank said in court documents.
Mason claimed his promotion to vice president was “meritocratic” and that Ang had no influence over it, the bank said in a court filing. “This is untrue. In fact, Mason’s promotion to vice president was the centerpiece of ‘Project Ken,’ and Mason and Ang worked closely together,” RBC said.
Ang is seeking about C$50 million in compensation and damages, while Mason is suing the bank for more than C$20 million in compensation and damages.
In its counterclaim against Ang and Mason, RBC seeks to recover “excessive compensation” paid to Mason as a result of Ang’s intervention on Mason’s behalf.
The company is also seeking to recover part of the bonus paid to Ang, as well as other damages and costs, including potentially compensation for another employee who was allegedly fired by Ang for raising concerns about Mason’s pay.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
