Trustees of Torrington, Connecticut, Company Pension Plan to Make Restitution to Plan Participants

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Boston, Massachusetts - The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment requiring the trustees of a Torrington, Connecticut, pension plan to repay $58,000 to the Interior Technology, Inc. Prevailing Wage Plan in order to reverse the unlawful transfer of plan funds to the company.

“The law makes it very clear that trustees of employee pension and benefit plans must administer the plan solely for the benefit of its participants and beneficiaries,” said James Benages, regional director in Boston for the U.S. Labor Department’s Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration (PWBA). “Transferring plan assets to the company sponsoring the plan is prohibited.”

The judgment, signed by U.S. District Judge Dominic J. Squatrito on December 18, 2002, requires defendants William C. Mascetti and Patricia J. Mascetti to repay the funds to the plan within 30 days, and prohibits them from future violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

A department lawsuit filed December 28, 2001, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut alleged that the defendants had violated ERISA, the federal law which protects private employee pension and welfare benefit plans, by causing the company’s pension plan to transfer nearly $48,000 to Interior Technology, Inc. in 1994. The company, which has since gone out of business, never repaid the funds to the plan.

While neither admitting nor denying the allegations of the department’s lawsuit, the defendants agreed to entry of the consent judgment, which also prohibits them from serving as fiduciaries of any ERISA covered plan for a period of five years from the date of the judgment.

The order further requires the defendants to make sure that all of the pension plan’s participants receive their proper share of the plan’s assets. Thereafter, the defendants must make sure the plan is terminated in an orderly manner.

The PWBA regional office in Boston investigated this case. Employers and workers can reach that office at 617.565.9600. PWBA’s Toll-Free Employee & Employer Hotline number, 1.866.275.7922, also may be called for help with problems relating to private-sector pension and health plans.

Additional information is available on the agency’s Internet web site at www.dol.gov/pwba.

(Chao v. William C. Mascetti, et al
Civil Action No. 01-CV-2431-DJS)

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