Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Washington – The Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans (also known as the ERISA Advisory Council) and its three working groups will meet September 9-11 at the U.S. Department of Labor, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Room S-3215 A-B in Washington, D.C.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued a Long Beach pediatrician and his professional corporation for allegedly misusing retirement plan assets and refusing to distribute account balances to terminated participants.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Atlanta – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Timothy Steinkamp, a corporate officer of defunct Broward Removal Services and Broward Trade Services Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) when he failed to remit employee contributions owed to the company’s 401(k) plan.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Cincinnati – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a default judgment requiring Cincinnati-based Queen City Restaurant Group and its 401(k) trustee, Vincent Bryant, to pay $46,718 to the company’s 401(k) savings plans as restitution for failing to remit employee contributions and loan repayments owed to the plans.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued the former president and chief executive officer of a defunct Phoenix company for allegedly misusing assets of the CTC Engineering money purchase plan of Scottsdale, Arizona, to pay personal and corporate expenses.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

New York – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal court order appointing an independent fiduciary to manage the abandoned 401(k) plan of the former Storch Sheinbrot & Singer Physicians PC of Brooklyn, New York.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

New York – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York to obtain appointment of an independent fiduciary to oversee the abandoned 401(k) plan of defunct Freedom Security Systems Inc. of New Hyde Park, New York.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Huntington, New York – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a default judgment requiring Huntington, New York-based Mutual Association Administrators (MAA) to restore nearly $1.8 million to the Mutual Employees Benefit Trust (MEBT) and permanently barring the firm from providing service to plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) in the future. The judgment resolves a lawsuit filed by the department.

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

Hartford, Connecticut – Trustees of the James T. Farrell III Money Purchase Pension Plan in Hartford misused more than $960,000 in plan assets to pay their personal expenses and operating expenses of Farrell Associates in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), according to a lawsuit filed by the U. S. Department of Labor.

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

Austin, Texas – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued fiduciaries of the 401(k) plan for employees of the Brown Schools Inc., based in Austin, for failure to forward employee contributions to the company’s 401(k) plan and misusing those assets to pay the operating expenses of the school.

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

San Juan, Puerto Rico – The union Sindicato de los Empleados de Equipo Pesado, Construcción y Ramas Anexas de Puerto Rico Inc. has agreed to pay $70,986.46 in restitution to the Plan de Bienestar de los Empleados de Equipo Pesado Construcción Ramas Anexas de Puerto Rico Inc. under a consent judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor.

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

Cincinnati – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a default judgment against Woodford Memorial Hospital Inc. of Versailles, Kentucky, removing the hospital as fiduciary of its retirement and thrift plan, and appointing an independent fiduciary to oversee the collection, management and liquidation of assets for the benefit of the plan’s participants.

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

WASHINGTON — Elaine L. Chao, U.S. secretary of labor, and Christopher Cox, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), today agreed to make permanent their agencies' longstanding relationship of sharing information on retirement and investments to protect the $5.8 trillion in retirement assets of American workers, retirees and their families held in employee benefit plans by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

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

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment in which Phoenix-based Hyacinth Corp. and its president agreed to restore $125,000 owed to participants of the corporation’s money purchase plan.

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

Washington – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a proposed rule that will make it easier for an estimated 65 million participants covered by 401(k)-type plans to make informed retirement savings decisions. The proposal would provide workers with useful summary information, including fee and expense information, for investment options available under their plans.

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

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued North Valley Precision Products of Reno, Nevada, for misusing 401(k) plan assets that resulted in 12 former employees being unable to access their retirement plan accounts.

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

Seattle – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) will hold free, half-day workshops July 29 in Seattle to help employers, the employee benefit community and others better comply with the federal pension law.

The workshops will be held at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. PDT in the Henry Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Avenue in the Evergreen Room.

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

New York – Two officers of defunct New York City and Santa Monica, California-based textile companies American Fabrics Co. and Beverly Trimming Co. agreed to restore $111,260 to the companies’ 401(k) plan to resolve a Labor Department lawsuit alleging violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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

San Francisco — The U.S. Department of Labor has sued a purported employer association, a health fund trustee, and the fund’s consultant over alleged imprudent management of the Manufacturing and Industrial Workers Benefit Fund (MIWU) of Bryan, Texas. The defendants’ actions allegedly resulted in more than $3.4 million in unpaid health claims affecting participants in Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Texas and other states.

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

New Haven – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a federal court order appointing an independent fiduciary to manage the abandoned 401(k) plan of defunct VA Construction LLC of Waterbury, Connecticut.