Memphis Pension Plan Officials Sued By Labor Department

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against the American Technical Institute of Memphis, Tenn. alleging that the institute failed to timely transmit employee and employer contributions owed to the institute’s money purchase pension plan.

American Technical Institute is an independent, non-profit educational institution offering engineering courses to employees in the nuclear power industry. Its money purchase plan covered as many as 11 participants. Under the plan terms, participants could elect to invest contributions in individual annuities with the Teachers Insurance and Annunity Association (TIAA) or the College Retirement Equities Fund (CREF).

The Labor Department lawsuit alleged that the institute and its plan trustee Dr. Dallas Wayne Jones of Memphis failed to transmit employee contributions from August 1994 to January 1995 and from Jan. 1, 1998 to July 30, 1998 to TIAA-CREF. Delinquent matching employer contributions were not collected from August 1994 to the present. The contributions owed to the plan total at least $28,979.90, exclusive of lost interest.

The lawsuit is seeking to order the defendants to restore to the plan all losses, including interest, to remove the officials from their positions and permanently bar them from serving as fiduciaries over any employee benefit plan subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Further, the suit is asking the court to appoint a successor trustee and administrator to take over the plan and, if necessary, to terminate the plan.

The lawsuit is a a result of an investigation conducted by the Atlanta Regional Office of the department’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration into alleged violations of the ERISA. It was filed in federal district court on Jan. 22 in Memphis.

Herman v. American Technical Institute and Dr. Dallas Wayne Jones
(Civil Action # 99 CV 2066)

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Contact Name: Sharon Morrissey
Phone Number: 202.219.8921