Former employees of Hollandia Produce Group Inc. advanced key claims in their lawsuit saying the California vegetable producer’s short-lived employee stock ownership plan was a sham aimed at enriching outsiders.
The workers can pursue claims that the stock plan’s trustee, GreatBanc Trust Co., breached its fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by failing to investigate multiple red flags associated with outside investors tied to the plan, Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. said. GreatBanc argued it had no duty to be a “white knight” protecting workers from Hollandia’s bad business decisions, but Cogburn said the company was still ...