Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Harold and Sandra Kaplan, trustees of two employee benefit plans for a Long Island company, pleaded guilty, respectively, to embezzling from the company’s defined benefit and 401(k) plans and for failing to maintain required documents for both plans, in violation of federal pension law. Their pleas were entered on May 7 before Judge Arthur D. Spatt in the U.S. District Court in Uniondale, N.Y.

The Kaplans, who are husband and wife, were officers of Halpak Plastics, Inc., a plastics packaging company, and trustees of its defined benefit and 401(k) plans. Halpak Plastics established the plans to provide retirement benefits to Halpak employees. At the time of the breaches, the defined benefit plan had approximately 38 participants and there were 33 participants in the 401(k) plan.

Harold Kaplan pleaded guilty to a one-count felony information that charged him with embezzling more than $170,000 of assets from the company’s defined benefit plan and more than $48,000 from its 401(k) plan. Sandra Kaplan pleaded guilty to a one-count misdemeanor information that charged her with failing to keep, disclose and maintain required records pertaining to both pension plans as required under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Harold Kaplan’s guilty plea carries a maximum penalty of five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000, or both. Sandra Kaplan’s plea carries a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment and a fine of $100,000, or both.

The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 10 in the U.S. District Court in Uniondale, N.Y. The case resulted from an investigation by the New York Regional Office of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration into violations of ERISA.

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U. S. v. Harold Kaplan
Criminal Action No. 97-429 (ADS)

U.S. v. Sandra Kaplan
Criminal Action No. 99-440 (ADS)

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Contact Name: Rita Ford
Phone Number: 202.219.8921