DWP Trucking Pension Plan Trustee Being Sued For Restitution

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco, California - The U.S. Department of Labor announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington in Spokane against the pension plan trustee and former owner of a defunct Spokane-based company. The suit alleges violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act for failing to properly forward money withheld from employees’ paychecks to their 401(k) plans.

According to the complaint, DWP Trucking, Inc., and Jerry Kuisti, its former owner and trustee of the DWP Trucking, Inc., Profit Sharing Plan, are being sued for unpaid employee elective contributions to the plan. The complaint alleges that the company and Kuisti failed to remit to the plan approximately $4,825 in voluntary employee contributions from January through September 1996.

The suit alleges that the money was held in the general assets of the company rather than being remitted to the plan. The department is seeking payment of these amounts, plus lost earnings on other deposits that were made late, totaling approximately $7,870. Amounts restored to the plan will be distributed to the accounts of the affected former employees.

The complaint is the result of an investigation conducted by the Seattle District Office of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration.

“We are committed to protecting workers’ hard-earned benefits,” said Bette Briggs, regional director of PWBA’s San Francisco Regional Office. “Workers can help us protect their benefits by contacting our Seattle District Office at 206.553.4244 if they have questions or suspect abuse of their pension, health or other benefit plans.”

(Chao v. DWP Trucking, Inc.)

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.