Trustee Of Inglewood 401(K) Plan Charged With Misusing Pension Money

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U. S. Department of Labor has obtained a court judgment removing Levi J. Carey Sr., owner of Inglewood-based Computer Software Analysts, Inc., as a trustee to the company’s 401(k) plan and appointing an independent trustee to oversee the plan.

Under the consent judgment, Patsy Swick of Swick & Associates in Bellflower, Calif., has been appointed to manage the plan and to distribute the assets to participants upon termination of the plan. The judgment also requires that Carey and his wife forfeit their pension benefits under the plan and that the money be re-allocated to the pension accounts of the remaining plan participants.

The Labor Department sued Carey on Jan. 28 for failure to transmit employer and employee contributions withheld from employee paychecks to the 401(k) plan. The money was to be transmitted to Aetna Life Insurance Co. He directed that an amount substantially less than required be remitted to the plan’s Aetna account over the period July 1992 to June 1994. In addition, Carey failed to comply with the plan’s rules.

In a related criminal action, Carey pleaded guilty on July 7, 1997 to embezzling not less than $450,000 from the plan and is awaiting sentencing in the criminal case.

Computer Software Analysts provided technical and engineering services in software design to such federal government agencies as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense. The 401(k) profit sharing plan covered 108 participants.

This case resulted from an investigation by the Los Angeles Regional Office of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration into alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The judgment was entered on March 19 in Federal District Court for the Central District of California at Los Angeles.

(Herman v. Carey)
Civil No. CV 98-710LGB

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Contact Name:GLORIA DELLA
Phone Number: 202.219.8921