Andover, Connecticut, Construction Firm & Officers Sued By U.S. Labor Department To Recover Employee Pension Plan Assets

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Tiger Lee Construction Company of Andover, Connecticut, as well as Eugene Sammartino and Christine Sammartino, as owners of the company, have been sued by the U.S. Department of Labor to recover misused assets of the company's two employee pension plans.

In a complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut on January 28, 1998, the Department alleges that the Sammartinos violated the federal pension law, known as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), by using the assets of their company's pension plan and profit sharing plan for their own purposes rather than for the sole benefit of their employees participating in the plans.

Specifically, the complaint alleges that the Sammartinos, who were both trustees of the plans, at various times between November 1986 and March 1994 illegally caused the profit sharing plan and the pension plan to loan both of them a total of $437,100. The suit also alleges that neither principal nor interest on any of these loans has ever been repaid by the Sammartinos.

The Department's suit asks the federal court to: prevent the Sammartinos from ever again serving as fiduciaries or service providers to any employee benefit plan covered by ERISA; permanently enjoin the trustees and the company from future violations of ERISA; require the defendants to restore to the plans all losses they caused to the plans, plus interest; and require the defendants to correct the prohibited transactions in which they participated.

This court action is the result of an investigation by the Boston Regional Office of the Labor Department's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA), which administers and enforces ERISA.

(Herman v. Eugene Sammartino, et. al.)
Civil Action No. 3:98CV149

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Contact Name: John M. Chavez
Phone Number: 617.565.2075