Minneapolis-Based Firms To Make Restitution To Retirement Savings Plan

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent order and judgment from two Minneapolis-based companies and their retirement plan official requiring the repayment of $7,114.46 to the retirement savings plan sponsored by Metal Master of Minneapolis, Inc and JRS Enterprises, Inc. The corporate defendants also were permanently barred from violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Specifically, Metal Masters was ordered to pay the plan $3,638.26 and JRS Enterprises Inc. $3,773.20, with the amounts to be credited individually to participant accounts of seven employees, who are named in the court document. The retirement savings plan trustee Janet Sandburg Bjornstad recently died, and her husband Steven Bjornstad signed the Labor Department settlement on behalf of her estate.

The action resulted from a lawsuit filed by the Labor Department in April 1999. Allegedly, voluntary employee contributions were withheld from their paychecks and were not remitted to the plan in a timely fashion or at all. The lawsuit further alleged that the monies intended for the savings plan were retained in the companies’ general asset fund.

Metal Masters, incorporated in 1964, originally made gears but now does turning, milling and precision machining. JRS, which overhauls World War II airplanes, is headquartered with Metal Masters; and Bjornstad served both companies as chief executive officer. The companies established the participant-directed defined contribution plan on May 2, 1990, to provide retirement, death and disability benefits to their employees. The plan had $133,481 in assets and 13 participants as of Dec. 31, 1996.

The lawsuit resulted from an investigation conducted by the Kansas City Regional Office of the department’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration into alleged violations of the ERISA. The consent order and judgment were entered March 2 in federal district court in Minneapolis.

(Herman v. Metal Masters of Minneapolis, Inc..)
Civil Action No. 99-CV-632

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.