Ex-bank workers sue over stock plan
Posted on Wednesday, July 30, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/232813/
Three former employees of ANB Bancshares Inc. who were invested in the bank’s employee stock ownership plan have sued the Rogers bank and trustees of the plan.
The three former employees — Jan Taylor, Carla Crosswhite and Laura Godsey — claim the defendants should have known that the deteriorating condition of ANB made the company stock “an imprudent investment” for the stock ownership plan.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.
The former trustees of the plan named in the lawsuit are Vic Evans, former chairman of ANB Financial Bank; Dan Dykema, former chief executive officer; Debra Jackson, former chief operating officer; Gregrey Landis, chief financial officer of the holding company; and bank directors Harry Brown, Eric Brown and Blake Evans.
ANB Financial was shut down by federal regulators May 9 because of “unsafe and unsound banking practices.”
Assets of the stock ownership plan were almost $ 68 million as of Dec. 31, 2006, with $ 56 million invested in the bank’s stock, the lawsuit states. There were about 250 employees invested in the plan, the lawsuit states. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status.
The lawsuit was filed by two Rogers law firms — Kendall Law Firm and Drewyor Law Firm — and Lewis Feinbereg Lee Renaker & Jackson of Oakland, Calif.