The Charles Schwab Corp. announced Thursday that she will investigate allegations by a former TD Ameritrade Inc. employee that she was sexually harassed two years ago.

The former employee, Cortney Kotzian, most recently held the title of Senior Relationship Manager, Self-Directed Plan Services, and was registered with TD Ameritrade in Omaha, Nebraska, from March 2017 to May, according to his BrokerCheck report. Schwab acquired TD last year.

Using social media sites TikTok and LinkedIn, Kotzian claimed in articles Tuesday that in November 2019, an official, whose identity could not be independently verified, insisted that she wear a sweatshirt. hooded as part of a casual Friday. She said she wasn’t going to wear a hoodie, like many other employees, when the conversation took an ugly turn.

“He corrected me and said he could actually force me to wear whatever he wanted,” Kotzian said on the video. “I laughed and laughed at him and said, what are you going to do, send a memo to the CEO asking for a hoodie warrant?”

“At this point the tone changed from joking to serious, and he said no,” Kotzian said. “But what I can do is remove your home address from [human resources platform] PeopleSoft, drive home Friday morning, buckle up, take this off and force yourself into a hoodie. I told him he had crossed the line and had to leave me alone.

This prompted a comment from none other than Walt Bettinger, CEO of Schwab, who comments and responds to LinkedIn posts from Schwab employees.

“Harassment is unacceptable at Schwab,” Bettinger wrote. “We have a zero tolerance policy. We will investigate and take appropriate action. ”

Kotzian did not respond to an interview request via LinkedIn. Industry news site Ignites reported Kotzian’s claims and Bettinger’s response on Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Schwab echoed Bettinger’s statement in an email.

“Harassment is unacceptable at Schwab and we take every allegation seriously,” the spokesperson wrote. “Cortney Kotzian’s statements relate to conduct that allegedly took place prior to Schwab’s acquisition of TD Ameritrade and were investigated at that time. This week, Schwab retained the services of an outside lawyer to conduct an independent review of Ms Kotzian’s allegations.

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