Salt Lake Man Repays $100,000 to Employee Retirement Plan

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco, California - The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that Franz C. Stangl III of Salt Lake City has repaid $100,000 to the Davidson Lumber Employee Retirement Plan to resolve a complaint by the department that he took part in a transaction prohibited by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Stangl made the payment under terms of a consent judgment entered July 9, 2001, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in Salt Lake City.

According to Julianne Majette, acting regional director for the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration here, David Davidson, owner of the defunct Davidson Lumber Sales Co. and fiduciary to the Davidson Lumber Employee Retirement Plan, authorized a loan from the plan to a business in which Stangl had a significant interest.

Since Stangl and Davidson were also business partners, the transaction was in violation of ERISA which prohibits loans to parties in interest to an employee benefit plan.

In addition to monetary repayment, Stangl was enjoined and restrained from exercising authority or control of any ERISA-covered pension or welfare benefit plan including disposition of plan assets or administration of any such plan for ten years.

Stangl neither admitted nor denied the Labor Department’s allegations.

“Although it has taken some time to reach resolution, we believe that this is a very satisfactory conclusion and a benefit to the past employees of Davidson Lumber Sales,” Majette said.

(Chao vs Davidson Lumber Sales Inc.et al
Civil Action No. 2:90-CV-00716)

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.