(Bloomberg) --

Natixis SA asked French judges to toss a $10 million lawsuit from an ex-employee after saying he twisted his whistle-blower status to try to squeeze extra cash out of the bank.

André M. Romain raised the alarm over a possible insider trade by an executive simply to gain leverage as the bank prepared to end his U.S. job, Natixis lawyer Emeric Sorel said at a Paris court hearing last week. Romain sought to “scare” management to secure a leaving package and is now using the same arguments in his lawsuit, he said.

“In this case, it’s clear that Mr. Romain tried to twist the status of whistle-blower in order to get a maximum of money,” Sorel said.

Romain argued he was forced out of his job after he faced a backlash from managers when he reported a suspicious stock sale by the then-chief risk officer. He said he’s owed the money because the French bank ruined his finance career.

The lawsuit is part of a legal spat that has forced Natixis to defend itself in various legal forums. While judges have rejected all of Romain’s in-court demands so far, some of his other grievances have hit home. French regulators opened a probe into the stock sale and the bank is trying to recoup a 2.4 million-euro ($2.7 million) severance paid to former Chief Executive Officer Francois Riahi.

The bank’s disclosure that it had found an error in its calculation of the Riahi package came after Romain had lodged a criminal complaint in Paris over possible misuse of corporate assets.

Sorel denied any internal retaliation from Natixis and said Romain’s “wave” of legal procedures was a reaction to the bank’s refusal to shake hands on a payout when he asked to leave amicably in 2018.

Natixis declined to comment on the suit

Read more: Ex-Natixis Banker Seeks $11 Million to ‘Avenge’ Shattered Career

Romain, who lives in Austin, Texas, said he was sidelined by his former employer and left with no career-progression prospects after he raised questions about the stock sale. The bank pulled him out of his U.S. job, gave him a portfolio of clients in France that had “nearly no potential” and deprived him of a bonus that represented around half of his total pay.

He said his his treatment made his departure inevitable in mid-2019 and is seeking 9 million euros ($10 million) to compensate for his ruined career as well as some 170,000 euros to make up for the unpaid 2019 bonus, among other things.

“Given that I’d gone after the big bosses and that the world of finance isn’t big, I knew I could no longer find work in that sector in France,” Romain told judges as the Paris employment tribunal last week.

Romain said in an emailed statement that while his grievances started in the U.S. it “makes sense” to sue in France.

“The decisions to fire me in New York and to cut my bonus to zero were obviously taken by the Paris head office in retaliation for my blowing the whistle on the CRO’s insider trading,” he said.

In his lawsuit, Paris judges will have to decide whether he deserves compensation because his departure was akin to an unfair dismissal, or whether he simply quit.

A ruling will be handed down on Feb. 24 said Judge Christian Fremaux. “It’s not every day you get claims of this kind of size,” he added.

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