[Illustration:  Doug Thompson,  U.S. State Dept]

Prudential Financial on Wednesday said 3 former employees who accused Wells Fargo and the insurance firm of fraudulent life-insurance sales tactics were fired for inappropriate conduct, including degrading statements about co-workers, according to court documents.

The three former Prudential employees sued the insurance company last month alleging wrongful dismissal. That wrongful-dismissal suit, filed in a state court in New Jersey, alleged that some of the same sales tactics may have occurred with Prudential life-insurance policies sold through self-service kiosks in Wells Fargo branches and on the bank’s website.   [See Financialish 12/12/16 story: Wells Fargo Scandal Hits Prudential as Whistle-Blowers Sue]

The 3 fired employees worked in Prudential’s “Corporate Investigations Department,” which examines fraud against the company and internal allegations of fraud. They were part of a Prudential group reviewing whether Wells Fargo employees had signed up customers for insurance without their knowledge, according to their account and Prudential’s filing.

Prudential responded in court Wednesday ...  that the trio overstated their involvement in the review, and it denied many aspects of their narrative. The filing says they were terminated because of “inappropriate and unacceptable workplace misconduct having nothing to do with their involvement in the Wells Fargo review.” Prudential cited more than 300 pages of text messages by the plaintiffs and another former Prudential employee in 2015 and 2016 that it said contained “innumerable inexcusable comments ranging from an ethnic slur to profane and degrading statements about supervisors and co-workers.” This fourth unnamed former employee provided the messages to Prudential. Two managers filed an ethics complaint against the three on Nov. 14, based on the text messages, the Prudential filing says.