August 5, 1999

Labor Department Proposes Two Rules To Implement Summary Plan Description Requirements In Taxpayer Relief Act Of 1997

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration today published two proposed rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) implementing changes in ERISA's summary plan description requirements made by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 (TRA '97).

August 2, 1999

Labor Department Solicits Nominations For Employee Benefits Advisory Council

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor is soliciting nominations to fill five three-year vacancies on the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans. The deadline for receipt of nominations is Oct. 1.

July 30, 1999

Canadian Convicted Of Embezzling Retirement Funds From Massena, New York, Nursing Home

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

A federal jury in Watertown, New York, has reached a guilty verdict in the eight-day trial of a Canadian charged with embezzling from the pension plan of a Massena, New York, nursing home.

July 23, 1999

Baton Rouge Home Health Company Officials Indicted For Pension Plan Fraud

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Baton Rouge-based Faith Home Health Care Services, Inc. officials were indicted by a federal grand jury in the Middle District of Louisiana for fraud involving Medicare reimbursements to the company’s pension plan.

July 20, 1999

Advisory Committee On Negotiated Rulemaking To Hold Public Meetings

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U. S. Department of Labor’s ERISA Section 3(40) Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee will hold public meetings on August 25 and 26 to continue discussions to develop a proposed rule that would lay out a process and criteria for determining whether an employee benefit plan is established or maintained under a collective bargaining agreement.

July 15, 1999

EBSA Press Release: Labor Secretary Herman Announces New Disclosure Information on 401(k) Fees [07/15/1999]

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

For more information call: (202) 693-4650

Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman today joined with representatives of the American Bankers Association, the American Council of Life Insurance, and the Investment Company Institute to release new 401(k) fee disclosure tools. These new tools will help employers, especially small employers, understand the investment fees and expenses which are charged to 401(k) retirement plans.

July 14, 1999

U.S. Labor Department Settles Lawsuit With Providence, RI, Home Care Agency Sued Over Employee Firing; Worker Had Complained Of Unauthorized Health Insurance Deductions

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor has settled a lawsuit it had filed against Nursing Placement Home Care, Inc., of Providence, Rhode Island, for firing an employee who had complained to the Department after the company began making unauthorized deductions from the employee’s paycheck for health insurance premiums.

July 14, 1999

President Of Bourne, Mass., Home Health Care Firms Sentenced In Criminal Wage & Paycheck Deduction Case

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

July 12, 1999

Michigan Company And Officials Ordered To Restore More Than $200,000 To 401(K) Plan To Correct Plan Abuses

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Financial Application Consulting Services, Inc. in Livonia, Mich., and trustees of the company’s 401(k) plan were ordered to collectively restore $222,503.86 to the plan in a consent order and judgment obtained by the U. S. Department of Labor.

July 9, 1999

Labor Department Sues Alabama Corporation And Plan Trustee For Failure To Timely Remit Employees' Money

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

An Anniston, Ala., non-profit corporation and the former trustee of its 401(k) profit sharing plan were sued by the U. S. Department of Labor on July 8 for failure to timely remit more than $11,000 of employee contributions to the plan.

July 9, 1999

Labor Dept. Files Suit Against L.A. Computer Memory Companies, Individuals For Pension Violations

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Los Angeles - The U.S. Department of Labor announced today it filed suit July 8, 1999, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against two Los Angeles corporations; their president and majority shareholder; the companies’ pension plan; and the pension plan’s trustees for breach of fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

July 7, 1999

Executives Of ASA Freight, Milwaukee, Ordered To Make Restitution To Health Plan Participants

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Executives of ASA Freight Systems, Inc., a now defunct Milwaukee business, were ordered to pay more than $10,000 in restitution to participants covered by the company’s health benefit plan and were barred from managing any plans governed by federal pension law in a consent order and judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor.

July 1, 1999

Labor Department Settles Its Lawsuit With Brewster Dairy

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor today settled its lawsuit with executives of Brewster Dairy, Inc., in Brewster, Ohio, who agreed to pay $333,333 to the company’s profit sharing plan. These recovered funds and any additional distributions from the limited partnership are to be prorated and allocated to individual accounts of the plan’s eligible participants except for the defendants in the case.

June 30, 1999

Labor Dept. Files Suit Against L.A. Corporation, President For Pension Violations

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Los Angeles - The U.S. Department of Labor announced today a suit was filed June 28, 1999, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against a Los Angeles corporation, its president and its 401(k) profit sharing plan for breach of fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

June 29, 1999

Labor Department Sues Gurnee, Ill., Company Officials For Depleting Two Pension Plans

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor has sued officials of a now- defunct Gurnee, Ill., business for allegedly depleting the company’s two pension plans through a series of self-dealing transactions.

June 28, 1999

Ohio Bank And Former Executive Settle Lawsuit Involving Misuse Of ESOP Assets

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Charter One of Cleveland and the former chairman of the predecessor company — Haverfield Corp. — have agreed to a settlement with the U. S. Department of Labor providing for payment of $70,000.00 to the participants of the company’s employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) as restitution for improperly purchasing corporate stock for the plan at artificially inflated prices.

June 25, 1999

Labor Department Solicits Comments On Computer Scannable Versions Of The New Form 5500

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor today published a Federal Register notice seeking public comments on draft computer scannable formats of the 1999 Form 5500 Annual Return/Report of Employee Benefit Plan. The formats were developed by two competing national computer firms for use with the new ERISA Filing Acceptance System or "EFAST."

June 25, 1999

Erisa Advisory Council's Working Groups To Continue Gathering Information On 1999 Study Issues

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The Secretary of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans’ three working groups will hold the fourth in a series of fact-gathering meetings on July 13 and 14. All sessions will be held at the Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building at 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC, in Room S 4215 A-B.

June 22, 1999

Labor Department Settlement Requires Columbia Firm To Repay Pension Plan More Than $1 Million And Diversify Investments

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor has negotiated a settlement of its lawsuit against Columbia, S.C.-based C.W. Haynes and Company, Inc. and its president. Defendants are required to pay the company’s profit sharing plan $1,093,172.97 for the plan’s 40 percent interest in the Folly Fontaine Commerce Center partnership and the fair market value of the note payable to the plan by the Fontaine partnership.

The defendants also are ordered:

June 17, 1999

Labor Department Testifies On Initiatives Encouraging Employers To Offer Retirement Savin

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Leslie B. Kramerich, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, today testified before the Senate Special Committee on Aging on the agency’s efforts to expand retirement coverage and promote retirement savings for all Americans.