A judge has ordered the removal of Brian Lipshultz, a trustee at the St. Paul-based Otto Bremer Trust, the Star Tribune reports.

Lipshultz pushed hardest for the sale of Bremer Financial Corporation during a 2019 dispute between trustees and bank executives over who should control the bank’s future. Most of Bremer Financial’s profits go to the trust, which then distributes the funding as grants to charities across the upper Midwest region. According to the Star Tribune, nearly all U.S. charities gave up ownership of companies following tax law changes in the 1960s, and the trust’s ownership of Bremer Financial is the only instance of a charity still owning a bank in the United States. In the ruling, Ramsey County District Judge Robert Awsumb wrote that Lipschultz “allowed his own personal interests, enmity, or vindictiveness to impact his decisions and behavior as a trustee of one of the region’s most important charitable institutions.”

Following a series of lawsuits related to the 2019 dispute, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office conducted a nine-month investigation and petitioned the court to remove the three trustees on the grounds of various breaches of duty. In the ruling, Awsumb said the other two trustees, Daniel Reardon and Charlotte Johnson, could remain in place, and indicated that the institutions should end their relationship.

“There are many valid reasons supporting further exploration of strategic options to separate [Bremer Financial] from its ownership by the trust,” wrote Awsumb. “Doing so may very well be in everyone’s best interests.”

(Photo credit: Getty Images/Rudy Balasko)