Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration and Internal Revenue Service today extended the deadline for filing annual returns/reports (Form 5500 series) due to Hurricanes Floyd and Irene.

The extension applies to employee benefit plans, banks and insurance companies located in the counties designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency as federal disaster areas because of the hurricanes.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U. S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent order requiring the Seafarers International Union of Puerto Rico, the Carribbean and Latin America to repay $374,729, plus interest, to its welfare plan as repayment for improperly retained employer contributions owed to the welfare plan.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.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 November 16 and 17 to continue discussions on developing a proposed rule on whether an employee benefit plan is established or maintained under a collective bargaining agreement.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U. S. Department of Labor has sued Albuquerque, N.M.-based Reams Communications, Inc. doing business as ValuLine Long Distance, and its officials for a series of prohibited transactions that have reduced the value of the company-sponsored employee stock ownership plan (ESOP).

The ESOP was established by Reams Communications in January 1, 1992. It had 102 participants and $1,093,631 in assets as of Dec. 31, 1995.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

A New Mexico State Court ordered Albuquerque-based R.B. French Fire & Sound, Inc. to pay restitution of employee contributions which the company failed to remit to the company’s 401(k) account and serve 18 months probation.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Thomas Buchanan, William Buchanan, and John Buchanan, trustees of the Northern-Minnesota Wisconsin Area Health Care Retirement Plans for union and non-union employees of Donjer, Inc. and Buchanan Nursing Home, Inc. (BNH) in Duluth, Minn., were ordered to terminate the plans and make distribution of plan assets to plan participants under a consent order and judgment reached with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The owners of Team Tooling, Inc. in Fond du Lac, Wis., were ordered to make restitution to the plan for failure to remit voluntary employee contributions to the company’s retirement plan and were permanently barred from serving in positions of trust to any plan governed by federal pension law, as part of a consent order and judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor.

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

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

Georgian Art Lighting Designs, Inc. of Lawrenceville, Ga., and its owner have been sued by the U. S. Department of Labor for failing to deposit $48,988 of employee contributions into the company’s 401(k) plans and medical plan accounts.

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

The Secretary of Labor’s Advisory Committee on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans will hold meetings for its three working groups on Oct. 5 and 6. All sessions will be held in Room N3437 A-B at the Department of Labor’s Frances Perkins Building at 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC.

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 October 13 and 14 to continue its discussion of the process and criteria to be used in developing a proposed rule on whether an employee benefit plan is established or maintained under a collective bargaining agreement.

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

The U.S. Department of Labor reached a settlement in three related lawsuits with trustees of three pension fund plans, based in Utica and Massena, which result in $3 million being repaid to the plans.

The defendants in the three separate lawsuits, which were filed concurrently June 12, 1998, in the Federal District Court in Binghamton, and the amounts they agreed to pay the pension plans are:

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

William David Dickinson of Waterport, New York, has agreed to plead guilty to a one count criminal information regarding the misuse of employee pension funds in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), which is administered by the U.S. Department of Labor.

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

Marine Midland Bank, based in Buffalo, New York, has been sued by the U.S. Department of Labor to recover losses to a North Tonawanda, New York, employee stock ownership plan for which the bank had served as Trustee.

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

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

The U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA) has selected National Computer Systems, Inc. of Iowa City, Iowa, to complete the development of its new Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Filing Acceptance System, known as EFAST.

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

The U. S. Department of Labor has sued the trustees, an accountant and a “shell investment entity” for imprudently investing nearly all of the retirement plan assets of Montgomery Academy, located in Gladstone, N.J., in unsecured investments.

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

Buckeye Technical Services, Inc. in Columbus, Ohio, and trustees of its 401(k) plan have been ordered to repay $34,944.63 and the trustees have agreed to waive any rights to benefits from the plan as part of a consent order and judgment obtained today by the U. S. Department of Labor.

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

As the result of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union No. 99, based in Cranston, Rhode Island, and members of the Board of Trustees of the union’s Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee Trust have agreed to restore a total of $246,700.66 to the trust (which is considered to be an employee benefit plan under federal law).

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

The U.S. Labor Department today filed a lawsuit against a bankrupt Nashville, Tenn.- based firm, its affiliate and 401(k) plan official for failing to forward employee contributions to the plan.