Royal Bank of Canada’s former CFO, Nadine Ahn, said the bank used the narrative of an undisclosed relationship to “manufacture” a reason to fire her, according to documents filed Thursday with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

“RBC’s conclusions are based on conjecture and speculation, and are a blatant, deliberate attempt to manufacture a just cause termination,” read the court filing, seen by Bloomberg. 

Further, Ahn’s lawyer, Mark Fletcher, in a separate statement Thursday, said the bank “selectively quoted” communications between Ahn and former RBC treasury executive Ken Mason “to try to embarrass [and] intimidate” the ex-CFO.

“The bank’s policies have been selectively weaponized to attack the reputation of a successful woman who oversaw record profits during her tenure,” Fletcher said in a statement seen by The Globe and Mail and Reuters. “There is no policy against workplace friendships, and that’s all this was.”

Ahn, in Thursday’s 20-page filing, reiterated that she and Mason were “good friends” and nothing more. The filing serves as a reply to a countersuit RBC made last month against Ahn and Mason, doubling down on its conclusion that the executives’ relationship went further.

A spokesperson for RBC pointed to the bank’s earlier statements on the matter.

“Contrary to the statements of claim from Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason, the investigation showed there was an undisclosed close personal relationship, and that Ms. Ahn misused her authority as CFO to directly benefit Mr. Mason,” read the statement, sent Friday by RBC spokesperson Gillian McArdle. “As she was a Named Executive Officer, we had an obligation to disclose.”

RBC dismissed Ahn and Mason in April. The executives, separately, sued the bank for wrongful termination. RBC countersued, demanding clawbacks of excess compensation.

The origin of KD

In its countersuit, RBC cited messages between Ahn and Mason, along with mementos they made indicating they had pet names for one another.

“Prickly Pear and KD lived happily ever after!” reads a note in a 43-page online “LoveBook” Mason allegedly ordered and had sent to his office, according to the bank.

Nicknames are common in RBC’s culture, Ahn asserted in Thursday’s filing. Mason’s nickname KD, in fact, stands for Kraft Dinner, referring to the Canadian equivalent to macaroni and cheese. It’s meant as a joke about Mason’s “English tendencies,” according to the filing. Ahn’s nickname, Prickly Pear, allegedly refers to her sometimes abrasive nature.

In her filing, Ahn denied any knowledge of a poem that RBC alleged Mason wrote in her honor. She also denied knowing about the “LoveBook,” or that Mason kept a coaster – encased in plexiglass – from a May 2016 meeting between them at a Toronto restaurant.

Ahn asserted Thursday that she received “differential treatment” as a woman. Men in senior bank leadership roles shared close friendships with other men who reported to them, she said. Male co-workers socialize outside the office among each other. Sometimes they vacation together. And sometimes, one person in a friendship would be in charge of compensation decisions affecting his friend. Ahn experienced a different level of scrutiny, she said. Further, RBC’s policies don’t require the disclosure of workplace friendships, Ahn added.

Insomnia and Shakespeare

In the filing, Ahn pushes back against some of the interpersonal messages RBC used to build the argument that her friendship with Mason crossed boundaries.

“I want to see you but I don’t want to pressure you,” Ahn allegedly wrote to Mason in a 2015 email time-stamped at 2:16 a.m.

Ahn’s lawyers Thursday asserted she wrote the email while she was under stress and experiencing insomnia. Further, a text message exchange in which she wrote “I love you” was a joking response to Mason mocking her, “and is taken out of context by RBC,” according to the filing.

RBC last month alleged Ahn forwarded romantic poetry to Mason, “expressing that she had fallen in love” with him.

Ahn’s lawyers Thursday said she was quoting William Shakespeare, adding that she had quoted dialogue from “War and Peace” in other messages.

“It is not uncommon for co-workers and friends to read books together and to discuss them,” Ahn said in her filing.

‘Project Ken’

Ahn also denied Thursday any knowledge of “Project Ken,” the alleged effort to help Mason achieve greater responsibility in the bank — and compensation to go with it. Mason’s November 2023 promotion to vice president and head of capital and term funding at RBC allegedly served as an element to that plan.

RBC alleged last month that when Mason received that title, it was because Ahn “overrode” objections from senior bank officers to whom Mason reported.

“There are many checks and balances at the bank to ensure no individual can unilaterally determine compensation,” Fletcher said Thursday. “Nadine was supportive when consulted about these decisions because they made sense.” 

That runs counter to a claim in RBC’s suit, alleging that Ahn “circled Mr. Mason’s name on a piece of paper and instructed” the bank’s treasurer to promote him.

Mason “earned his compensation increases and promotion with performance and merit,” Fletcher said Thursday.

Lawyers for Mason did not reply to a request for comment from Bloomberg. 

‘Ambushed’

In Thursday’s filing, Ahn’s lawyers said she did not lie about her friendship with Mason to external investigators when they met with her on what would be her last day at RBC. 

Ahn was “ambushed,” the lawyers said, adding that Ahn answered the investigators’ questions “to the best of her ability.”

Ahn, however, took issue Thursday with RBC’s assertion that she fired an employee in 2022 over an undisclosed relationship that was “substantively identical” to her own.

“Unlike the above noted employees, Ms. Ahn and Mr. Mason were not in a romantic relationship,” Thursday’s filing reads. “Ms. Ahn’s friendship with Mr. Mason was not a conflict of interest (real or perceived).”