Laborer's Fund Administrator Pleads Guilty to Pension Fraud

Contact Name: Rita Ford
Phone Number: 202.219.8921

According to the plea agreement, James R. Sronce was executive administrator of the pension fund from June 1991 until his resignation in September 1993. During this time, he charged approximately $76,648 in personal expenses on a credit card that had been issued to him for legitimate pension plan business. To conceal the fraud, he then falsified plan expense records, which caused false information to be recorded on the annual form 5500 report filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

Sronce entered a plea of guilty on Aug. 28 in U.S. District Court in Peoria, Ill., to one count of falsifying records. At the time of his resignation, he restored to the plan -- from his own retirement account -- the entire amount he embezzled. He is subject to a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment and a $5,000 fine.

The investigation was conducted by the St. Louis District Office of the Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration into violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

U.S. v. Sronce
CR 9710051

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