US Department of Labor sues R.B. Pamplin Corporation and owner to recover millions in retirement funds for pension plan participants

PORTLAND, OR – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon against Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. and R.B. Pamplin Corporation for jeopardizing millions of dollars in retirement funds for thousands of employees because of the unlawful acquisition of company-owned real estate by the R.B. Pamplin Corporation and Subsidiaries Pension Plan.

The department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration conducted an investigation and found that, beginning in 2019, the plan unlawfully acquired interests in more than 20 company-owned properties. These acquisitions exceeded the limit permitted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The department alleges that Dr. Pamplin instructed the pension plan to acquire the properties without regard for the limit set by federal law.

The plan’s real estate holdings currently include rangeland, a vineyard, an island in a river once used for dredging, an office building and irrigated cropland. The department alleges some properties were not sold to the plan at fair market value or were unsuitable for multiple uses without significant improvements. Other properties had attached liens, unpaid leases, unpaid property taxes, environmental liabilities or were sold in fractional interests, diminishing their value.

The department’s enforcement efforts prior to the lawsuit resulted in Dr. Pamplin stepping down as plan trustee in September 2023 and the appointment in October 2023 of Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC as the plan’s independent fiduciary and investment manager to liquidate excess real estate and achieve a prudent investment portfolio. Today’s lawsuit seeks to correct all identified violations, recover lost opportunity earnings, and permanently bar Dr. Pamplin from acting as an ERISA fiduciary. 

“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 requires that fiduciaries operate employee benefit plans solely in the interest of participants and beneficiaries. Employers and workers can reach EBSA toll-free at 866-444-3272 for help with problems related to private sector retirement and health plans.