Date: September 18, 2026

OCC Customer Assistance Group
P.O. Box 53570
Houston, Texas 77052
Telephone: 1-800-613-6743
Email: customer.assistance@occ.treas.gov
Website: occ.gov/customers/customer-assistance-and-answers/index-customer-assistance.html

Formal Complaint Against Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department and Trustee of Record

This complaint is submitted to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) concerning the administration of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust by Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department, acting in conjunction with the trustee of record, attorney Foster S.B. Friedman. All factual assertions below are grounded in the documentary record published on this site and specifically identified in Section 7 (Evidence).

Section 1 — Identification of the Parties

Complainant: Valérie Gagnon, Canadian citizen, sole heir and sole income and principal beneficiary of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust, and daughter of the deceased settlor, Gaetane Gagnon.

Respondent (Institutional Fiduciary / Custodian): Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department, Alexandria, Virginia. The Trust Department held and administered the trust assets of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust during the period described in this complaint.

Trustee of Record: Foster S.B. Friedman, attorney, Friedman, Grimes, Meinken & Leischner PLLC, serving as the appointed trustee of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust during the period of non-distribution described below.

Trust Instrument: The Gaetane Gagnon Trust, settled by Gaetane Gagnon (now deceased). Article IX of the trust instrument governs the mandatory distribution of trust funds to the complainant as sole beneficiary.

Section 2 — Jurisdiction

The OCC has supervisory and enforcement authority over national banks and their fiduciary activities under 12 U.S.C. § 92a and the implementing regulations at 12 C.F.R. Part 9. Burke & Herbert Bank operates as a federally supervised institution with a trust department that provides fiduciary and custodial services for trust accounts, including the Gaetane Gagnon Trust.

Under 12 C.F.R. § 9.7, a bank acting in a fiduciary capacity must administer each account in accordance with applicable law and the governing instrument, and must exercise the care, skill, prudence, and diligence under the circumstances then prevailing that a prudent person acting in a similar capacity would exercise. These duties squarely apply to Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department in its role as institutional fiduciary and custodian of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust assets.

This complaint concerns the bank’s knowing failure to enforce, or even to honor, the mandatory distribution provisions of the trust, and its ongoing administration of a trust account in open conflict with the governing instrument and the rights of the sole beneficiary.

Section 3 — The Breach — Article IX Violation

Article IX of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust mandates the distribution of trust funds to Valérie Gagnon as the sole beneficiary. The terms of Article IX are not discretionary: distribution to the complainant is mandatory, and the trustee and any institutional custodian have no authority to withhold or indefinitely retain distributable funds once the triggering conditions are met. The documentary record, including the full trust instrument, confirms this mandatory character.

Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department, as institutional custodian and fiduciary, held the trust funds during the period in question. The bank maintained and administered a designated trust account for the Gaetane Gagnon Trust, with full access to the balance, transaction history, and the governing trust documentation, including Article IX.

The bank statements labeled Exhibit C — consisting of 14 consecutive monthly account statements from July 2025 through September 2026 — show that substantial funds were held in the trust account without being distributed to the beneficiary. Month after month, the account reflects undistributed balances despite the operative mandate of Article IX requiring distribution to Valérie Gagnon as sole beneficiary. This sustained non-distribution is not consistent with a mandatory distribution regime.

Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department had both the legal duty and the practical ability to recognize this contradiction between the governing instrument and the actual administration of the account. As an institutional fiduciary with a dedicated trust department, the bank is expected to review trust terms, monitor account activity, and intervene when administration violates the trust instrument or applicable fiduciary law.

Instead, Burke & Herbert Bank allowed the funds to remain undistributed, month after month, in knowing violation of Article IX. The bank continued to carry the account as if non-distribution were permissible, despite clear language requiring distribution to the sole beneficiary. This prolonged failure to require, facilitate, or effect mandatory distributions constitutes a direct breach of the obligations that accompany fiduciary custody of trust assets.

Section 4 — OCC Regulatory Standards Violated

The conduct described above is inconsistent with, and violates, multiple OCC fiduciary standards, including but not limited to:

1. 12 C.F.R. § 9.7 — Duty of Loyalty and Prudent Administration. This provision requires a bank, in each fiduciary account, to administer the account in accordance with applicable law and the governing instrument, and to exercise high standards of care, skill, prudence, and diligence. By permitting trust funds to sit undistributed for at least 14 consecutive months in the face of a mandatory distribution provision, Burke & Herbert Bank failed to administer the account in accordance with Article IX and failed to exercise prudent oversight. The bank’s continued retention of assets contrary to the beneficiary’s distribution rights reflects a breach of the duty of loyalty and prudent administration.

2. 12 C.F.R. § 9.8 — Self-Dealing and Conflicts of Interest. While the full extent of the bank’s financial incentives is a matter for OCC investigation, the facts as documented show that Burke & Herbert Bank continued to hold the account and collect its associated fees while the sole beneficiary received no distributions. This structure creates at minimum a serious conflict of interest: the bank benefits from keeping assets under management, while the beneficiary’s interests under Article IX lie in prompt distribution. The bank’s failure to resolve that conflict in favor of the beneficiary’s rights, or even to raise it, is consistent with a prohibited pattern of conflicted administration.

3. 12 C.F.R. § 9.9 — Recordkeeping and Account Reviews. OCC regulations require banks to maintain adequate records and to conduct periodic reviews of fiduciary accounts. A reasonable review of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust account, cross-referenced with Article IX, would have revealed the glaring mismatch between the mandatory distribution terms and the prolonged non-distribution shown in the statements. The 14-month span of Exhibit C evidences either the absence of required periodic reviews or reviews so deficient that they failed to identify, document, or remediate an obvious breach of the governing instrument.

In sum, the bank failed to conduct and document the required reviews that would have surfaced the breach, failed to flag the ongoing non-distribution to the beneficiary, and failed to take any corrective action consistent with its obligations under 12 C.F.R. Part 9.

Section 5 — Pattern of Conduct

The non-distribution documented in Exhibit C is not an isolated administrative error or a single missed payment. The record shows 14 consecutive months of continued non-distribution of trust assets to the sole beneficiary under a mandatory distribution provision. This is a deliberate, sustained pattern of ignoring the governing instrument and the beneficiary’s rights.

Throughout this period, Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department continued to hold and administer the account. The bank maintained custody and control while Valérie Gagnon, the only person entitled to receive the trust funds under Article IX, received nothing. The bank’s passivity in the face of such a prolonged breach is incompatible with any plausible claim of mere oversight.

The evidence further shows that while the beneficiary was effectively disinherited in practice, the bank continued to benefit from the existence of the account through ongoing management, custody, or related fees. That financial benefit was conditioned on keeping the funds in place rather than distributing them as the trust required. This configuration reflects not only an individual failure of duty but a structural pattern: the bank’s interests in fee generation were allowed to override, or at least eclipse, its duties to enforce the trust’s mandatory distribution regime for the victim of this misconduct.

Section 6 — Relief Requested

Given the seriousness of the documented violations and the broader implications for other trust beneficiaries similarly situated, the complainant respectfully requests that the OCC undertake the following actions:

  • Immediate formal OCC investigation into Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department’s administration of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust, with a specific focus on its handling of Article IX and its failure to ensure mandatory distributions to Valérie Gagnon.
  • Comprehensive audit of all trust accounts administered by Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department to identify whether similar patterns of prolonged non-distribution under mandatory or clearly beneficiary-favorable provisions are occurring in other accounts.
  • Referral to the Department of Justice Financial Crimes Unit for review of potential fraud, willful breach of fiduciary duty, or other financial misconduct arising from the bank’s retention of beneficiary funds and related fee structures.
  • Mandatory distribution order directing immediate distribution to the complainant of all amounts that should have been paid under Article IX of the Gaetane Gagnon Trust, together with any applicable earnings or adjustments.
  • Full accounting of all fees and charges collected by Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department during the period of non-distribution documented in Exhibit C, including any trust, custody, advisory, or related fees tied to the retained assets.
  • Imposition of civil money penalties and any other remedial measures authorized under 12 U.S.C. § 1818 and related provisions, calibrated to reflect not only the harm to this beneficiary but the systemic risk posed by a trust department that disregards mandatory distribution terms.

Section 7 — Evidence

The allegations and requests in this complaint are supported by documentary evidence published on this site, including the following records:

Collectively, these documents present a coherent record of how a national bank’s trust department, operating out of Old Town Alexandria, participated in and sustained a pattern of systemic cruelty and financial dispossession, leaving the sole beneficiary framed, broken, and effectively disinherited despite clear trust language to the contrary.

Closing and Certification

I, Valérie Gagnon, submit this complaint to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under penalty of perjury. To the best of my knowledge, information, and belief, formed after reasonable inquiry, the factual statements contained herein are true and correct, and are supported by the documentary evidence cited in Section 7 and published on this site.

The Gaetane Gagnon Trust was designed to protect and provide for the settlor’s heir. Instead, through the intertwined conduct of Burke & Herbert Bank Trust Department and the trustee of record, it became another instrument of systemic cruelty and financial erasure in Alexandria’s Old Town Bulfinch Square environment. The OCC’s intervention is necessary not only to remedy this individual case, but to address a broader pattern in which institutional actors disregard governing instruments, exploit their positions of control, and leave vulnerable beneficiaries without the inheritances that were lawfully and explicitly intended for them.

I respectfully demand a written response from the OCC within thirty (30) days of receipt of this complaint, indicating what investigative and remedial steps the agency will undertake in light of the documented breaches and patterns of misconduct described above.

Sincerely,

Valérie Gagnon
Beneficiary, The Gaetane Gagnon Trust