Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison moved to end a battle over the future of Bremer Bank, Minnesota’s fourth-largest, by seeking the ouster of the three trustees of the Otto Bremer Trust, the bank’s main owner.
Ellison sharply criticized the trustees — Brian Lipschultz, Daniel Reardon, and Charlotte Johnson — who last summer began pressuring the managers and directors of the bank’s parent, Bremer Financial Corp., to sell the company.
In a filing in the Ramsey County court where the dispute landed after lawsuits were traded last fall, Ellison said trustees breached their fiduciary duty and failed to administer the trust effectively.
Ellison also said the trustees didn’t follow the directives of Otto Bremer, who started the bank in 1943 and then created the charitable foundation to own it after his death, which was in 1951.
“Otto Bremer directed that the trust in his name not be used for ‘any purpose’ other than charitable. The trustees’ actions have abused his trust and Minnesotans’ trust,” Ellison said in a statement.
“I do not take this action lightly,” he added. “But as the chief law officer of the state and supervisor of charitable trusts in Minnesota, I have the duty to make sure charitable assets are used properly and for the benefit of the public, not the private aims and personal enrichment of the trustees. Because the trustees’ misconduct is particularly serious, it requires particularly serious action by my office.”
The Bremer trustees, who pay themselves more than $500,000 annually, have been accused by the Bremer Financial board of being more interested in personal power and enrichment than fulfilling the mission of Otto Bremer, who founded the bank