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News Release
Labor Department Obtains Judgment Ordering New Jersey Bakery and Executive to Restore More than $70,000 to 401(k) Plan
Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The U.S. Department of Labor obtained a judgment and order on October 6, requiring Conolly Calhoun & Conolly, Inc. (CCC), of Pennsauken, New Jersey, and its chief executive officer to restore $70,477 to the company’s 401(k) plan as restitution for failing to forward employee contributions to the plan.
The judgment also permanently bars the company and chief executive officer Vincent Acerbo from serving any plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and requires that Acerbo’s plan account be offset to pay money owed to the plan.
On April 16, 2001, the department sued the defendants for failing to forward $64,216.01 in employee contributions to the company’s 401(k) profit sharing plan for the period August 1997 to November 1998. Employee contributions were retained in the general account of Conolly Calhoun & Conolly. The firm sponsored and served as plan administrator of the plan on or about May 1998.
CCC is a wholesale baked goods distributor that established the CCC, Inc. 401(k) profit sharing plan for 168 employees in June 1995. The plan had $1,351,727 in assets as of May 31, 1997.
Philadelphia regional office director Mabel Capolongo noted that employers with similar problems, who are not yet the subject of an investigation by the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (EBSA), may be eligible to participate in the department’s Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP). Participation in the VFCP requires employers to make workers whole but allows them to avoid EBSA enforcement actions and civil penalties as well as any applicable excise taxes.
“The VFCP gives plan sponsors a way to come into compliance with ERISA by restoring workers’ benefits while avoiding an investigation by EBSA,” Capolongo said. “It protects workers’ health and retirement benefits and allows us to focus our resources on those who seek to avoid compliance.” For more information about the VFCP see www.dol.gov/ebsa.
The judgment, which resulted from an investigation by EBSA’s Philadelphia's regional office, was entered in the federal district court in Camden, New Jersey. Employers and workers can contact the regional office at 215.861.5300 or EBSA’s Toll-Free Employee & Employer Hotline number 1.866.275.7922 for help with problems relating to private-sector pension and health plans.
(Chao v. Acerbo
Civil Action No. 01-CV-1861)
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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.