DOL Sues California Pacific Bank

The U.S. Department of Labor sued San Francisco—based California Pacific Bank, including its board of directors and plan trustees, saying the bank violated ERISA by failing to distribute account balances in cash following the 2010 termination of the ESOP. The DOL alleges that the ESOP fiduciaries improperly transferred or allowed the transfer of $150,000 from the plan to the bank, and that following the termination of the ESOP, the plan held its assets in non-interest-bearing accounts. The DOL claims that these failures cost employees as much as $1.4 million.