New Castle Pension Trustee Ordered to Make Restitution

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

A trustee of the New Castle Engineering, Inc. profit sharing plan in Indianapolis, Indiana, was ordered to repay $19,809.45 to the plan under a consent order and judgment obtained February 16, 2001, by the U.S. Department of Labor.

Trustee Philip E. Coursen agreed to offset his retirement account to make restitution to the plan and to waive any right to share in the restored funds. Money restored to the plan will be distributed to the accounts of all plan participants, except Coursen. New Castle Engineering previously repaid $14,390.91 to the plan.

The judgment resolves a lawsuit filed in November 2000, alleging that Coursen and the company violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The defendants allegedly failed to remit to the plan $24,203.46 in voluntary employee contributions and $10,598 in loan repayments over the period September 1999 to February 2000. According to the lawsuit, the money was held in the general assets of the company rather than being remitted to the plan.

The court’s action resulted from an investigation conducted by the Cincinnati Regional Office of the department’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration. The judgment was entered in the federal district court in Indianapolis, Indiana.

“This case exemplifies our commitment to protect workers’ hard-earned benefits,” said Joseph Menez, Director of PWBA’s Cincinnati Regional Office. “Workers can help us protect their benefits by contacting our office at 859.578.4680 if they have questions or suspect abuse of their pension, health or other benefit plans.”

(Solano v. New Castle Engineering, Inc.
Civil Action No. IP-00-1829-C H/G)

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.