On December 27, 2021, Ms. Snyder insisted that Mr. Noga cease all involvement with the investigation, and appointed Sam Waters, Assistant General Counsel, to serve as the point person for Faegre Drinker, the outside law firm Mr. Noga had hired to conduct the investigation earlier that month. At that point, Mr. Noga and Nick Klinefeldt, the Faegre Drinker attorney investigating Mark, went to the board behind Ms. Snyder’s back and claimed that she had been attempting to interfere with the investigation.
Based on this information, the board decided to recuse Ms. Snyder, who was not allowed to participate further in the investigation, despite having critical evidence that would have allegedly exonerated Mark from several of the charges against him.
Mark eventually filed a formal complaint against Mr. Noga in mid-January 2022, first through the company’s anonymous hotline and subsequently in writing. His complaint was explicit about Mr. Noga’s bias against him because of his sexual orientation and detailed the homophobic epithets Mr. Noga had made both at the Des Moines Country Club and at the Flemings dinner.
