Feds Say Robert Pamplin Jr. Dragged His Feet in Making Pensioners Whole

By Nigel Jaquiss
July 2, 2025

Robert Pamplin Jr. used to take pride in the vast wealth that made him one of Oregon’s leading philanthropists. He was once a fixture on the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans and the owner of 24 Oregon newspapers and Ross Island Sand & Gravel, the company that provided many of the raw materials that built Portland.

Today, Pamplin, 83, is just another guy who cannot seem to pay his bills—although new court filings show his financial obligations are a little bigger than the ones most Oregonians face.

On June 20, the U.S. Department of Labor hauled Pamplin back into U.S. District Court in Portland, alleging the Lake Oswego industrialist had failed to comply with two key conditions of the agreement he signed in December to settle a federal civil lawsuit against him.

In that settlement agreement, Pamplin conceded to the feds that he had violated federal pension laws dozens of times over the past five years (“Empire for Sale,” Oregon Journalism Project, Jan. 15).

He did so by improperly selling or contributing 27 properties in more than 100 real estate transactions between R.B. Pamplin Corp. companies and the pension fund established to benefit his employees. Pamplin served as owner and CEO of R.B. Pamplin Corp and also sole trustee of the pension fund. As the Pamplin empire crumbled, records show, he relied increasingly on the highly unusual—and, the feds say, illegal—practice of dumping industrial properties into the $100 million pension fund, either in exchange for cash or to meet his company’s obligations to pensioners.

Drawing on years of reporting by Willamette Week, the Department of Labor, which regulates pensions, sued Pamplin last September, accusing him of abusing unwitting pensioners via the real estate transactions. In December, Pamplin admitted to the feds’ allegations, conceding to “all claims that the acting secretary [of labor] asserted.”

Pamplin agreed to make pensioners whole for any losses they’d suffered and for the opportunity cost of owning overvalued industrial properties rather than stocks and bonds.

To begin repaying his pensioners, Pamplin agreed to transfer assets worth at least $23 million to the pension fund in partial repayment for the losses the fund suffered. Separately, the settlement required Pamplin to put up another $3 million worth of property as security against a civil penalty he will have to pay the feds.

In their June 20, filing, labor officials wrote that “a dispute has arisen between the parties concerning [Pamplin’s] compliance with the consent judgment.”

Specifically, the Department of Labor said, Pamplin had “failed” to satisfy either requirement, to transfer assets worth $23 million or $3 million. They gave him five days to come up with the smaller amount and 30 days for the larger amount.

On June 26, attorneys for Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors, the firm the court appointed to manage Pamplin’s obligations under the settlement, filed papers saying they’d complied with the feds’ demands, recording deeds on two parcels of agricultural land in Washington County.

The Gallagher firm also filed an update on the liquidation of the real estate that Pamplin improperly placed in the pension fund. The results were not pretty. Gallagher reported selling four properties—an office building in Madras, the Gresham Outlook building, and a home and parcel of property in Yamhill County—for a net loss to pensioners of $389,000.

In the meantime, the rest of the two dozen or so properties in the pension fund have incurred other costs, such as property taxes and lease payments, of $2.6 million. Pamplin will ultimately have to compensate pensioners for that red ink, and the two dozen properties remain unsold.

Pamplin long ago stopped responding to requests for comment, and his attorney didn’t respond to a request for comment on this story.

The feds’ demands aren’t Pamplin’s only headache.

On June 16, the Pension Trust Fund for Operating Engineers sued Pamplin and his various companies in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Ross Island Sand & Gravel operates a dredging business in the Sacramento and Stockton deep water ship channels. The new lawsuit alleges Ross Island “withdrew” from the union’s pension plan (which is unrelated to the private R.B. Pamplin pension fund) in 2023 and owes a “withdrawal liability” that the union calculates at $1.9 million.

Pamplin has not yet responded to that lawsuit.

Finally, Ross Island Sand & Gravel faces a state administrative court hearing Aug. 19 and 20 over a proposed $2.9 million penalty the Oregon Department of State Lands levied against the company last year for failing to comply with the terms of its agreement to refill the Ross Island lagoon, where it mined the Willamette River bottom for 75 years, ending in 2001.