First Bankers Trust Will Stop Accepting ESOP Transaction Clients

In the wake of its loss in the federal District Court of New Jersey, First Bankers Trust announced in a May 8 open letter that it had "decided to suspend the engagement of our services for transactions related to new ESOPs," although it will "continue to provide our full compliment of services to our existing ESOP clients." In Perez v. First Bankers Tr. Servs. the district court ruled that First Bankers had allowed the trust to overpay for shares in a $16 million transaction at SJP Group Inc. by accepting a flawed valuation of company stock. The court ordered First Bankers to pay $9.95 million.