Until a few weeks ago, Canada's powerful banking community went to great lengths to avoid airing its dirty laundry. Toronto's Bay Street, the heart of the country's banking district, embraced the cosy style of a private club.
Then one day last month, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce suddenly screamed that it had been betrayed by its own staff.
CIBC went to court with a 600-page statement of claim accusing more than 20 of its most senior and trusted executives of launching a 'secretive, well-orchestrated and calculated scheme' against it.
The multimillion-dollar lawsuit came after the executives deserted a day after receiving more than US$10.5 million in performance bonuses in December and joined a fledgling brokerage, Genuity Capital Markets.
The defectors were guilty of 'misappropriating' information for the benefit of Genuity, a 'dishonest, reprehensible and egregious' act, CIBC said.
Three days after the exodus, CIBC asked two forensic firms to investigate the circumstances of the executives' departure and their activities in the months leading up to it.