The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon against Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. and R.B. Pamplin Corporation, alleging the unlawful acquisition of company-owned real estate by the R.B. Pamplin Corporation and Subsidiaries Pension Plan, jeopardizing millions of dollars in retirement funds for thousands of employees.
An investigation by the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) found that starting in 2019, the pension plan acquired interests in more than 20 company-owned properties, exceeding limits set by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The department claims Dr. Pamplin directed these acquisitions without regard to federal law limits.
The pension plan's real estate holdings include rangeland, a vineyard, an island previously used for dredging, an office building, and irrigated cropland. According to the department, some properties were not sold at fair market value or were unsuitable without significant improvements. Additionally, other properties had liens, unpaid leases and property taxes, environmental liabilities, or were sold in fractional interests reducing their value.
Following enforcement efforts prior to this lawsuit, Dr. Pamplin stepped down as plan trustee in September 2023. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC was appointed as the plan’s independent fiduciary and investment manager in October 2023 to liquidate excess real estate and achieve a prudent investment portfolio.
“Dr. Pamplin and R.B. Pamplin Corporation sold real estate to the company pension plan to raise cash for Pamplin’s struggling company, in direct violation of their fiduciary duty of loyalty to plan participants,” said EBSA Regional Director Klaus Placke in San Francisco. “These self-dealing activities have saddled the pension plan with low-performing and hard-to-sell real estate, causing tens of millions of dollars in losses to plan participants who will need that money in retirement.”
“Dr. Pamplin must restore the pension plan to where it would be if not for his wrongdoing and make his employees’ pension plan whole,” said Regional Solicitor Marc Pilotin in San Francisco. “The Solicitor’s Office has already been engaged actively with Dr. Pamplin to determine how he will do so and the department will not relent in fighting for participants’ rights until he does.”
ERISA mandates that fiduciaries operate employee benefit plans solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries.
