Labor Department Settles With A Software Company And Its Former Executives For Federal Pension Violations

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Los Angeles, California - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained consent judgments from a software company and two of its former executives. One consent judgment was entered on October 29, 2001, with Defendants Robert Mowry; Uni Prise Systems, Inc., a California corporation; and Uni Prise Systems, Inc., Retirement Plan. A second consent judgment was filed on September 20, 2001, with Defendant Joseph Perry, Uni Prise’s former director/president.

The October 29, 2001, judgment enjoins Robert Mowry, Uni Prise’s former chief executive officer and majority shareholder of Uni Prise, and Uni Prise from serving as fiduciaries to any employee pension benefit plan for twenty years.

The September 20, 2001, judgment enjoins Joseph Perry from serving as a fiduciary to any employee pension benefit plan for five years. The $7,622 in losses to the plan were also restored in full by Perry.

The judgments resolve a lawsuit filed on April 4, 2001, against Uni Prise Systems, Inc.; Robert Mowry; and Joseph Perry for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA). As alleged in the U.S. Department of Labor’s complaint, the violations of ERISA occurred when Uni Prise, Mowry and Perry failed to forward contributions withheld from employee paychecks to the plan.

According to the complaint, Mowry exercised the ultimate authority in deciding whether employee contributions were forwarded to the plan or used to pay other Uni Prise business expenses. Mowry was also an individual acting on behalf of Uni Prise as the plan administrator. Also, according to the complaint, Perry ran the daily operations of Uni Prise and had the authority to decide whether employee contributions were forwarded to the plan or used to pay other Uni Prise expenses. Perry was also an individual acting on behalf of Uni Prise as the plan administrator.

This court action was a result of an investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Office of PWBA, headed by Billy Beaver. It is part of an ongoing initiative to insure compliance with ERISA fiduciary standards with respect to timely deposit of employees’ contributions to 401(k) plans.

Beaver said, “This case exemplifies our commitment to protect the hard-earned benefits of workers. Workers can help us protect their plan benefits by contacting our office at 626.229.1000 if they have questions or suspect abuse of their pension, health or other benefit plans.”

The consent judgments were entered on October 29, 2001, and September 20, 2001, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

(Chao v. Robert Mowry, et al.
Civil Action No. 01cv00378)

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