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News Release
Illinois Firm and President to Restore Assets to 401(k) Plan under Judgment Obtained by Labor Department
Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.
Springfield, Illinois - In a consent order and judgment, obtained on December 5, by the U.S. Department of Labor, Passenger Transport, Inc. in Quincy, Illinois and its president were ordered to restore $9,726.94 to the company’s 401(k) plan for failing to remit salary deferral contributions of covered employees to the plan. In addition, David Disselhorst, the company’s president and the plan’s trustee, was barred from serving as a fiduciary to any employee benefit plan covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
“This action underscores the Department of Labor’s commitment to protect and secure the benefits promised to employees by their employers,” said Gregory Egan, director of the department’s Kansas City regional office of the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration, which investigated the case.
The judgment resulted from a lawsuit filed by the department on March 25, 2002, alleging that Passenger Transport, Inc. and Disselhorst violated ERISA by failing to remit employee withholdings to the plan for the period January 23, 1998 through May 28, 1999. Passenger Transport, Inc. is an airfreight, trucking, and limousine service company whose pension plan covered 15 participants as of May 1999.
Regional Director Gregory Egan noted that employers with similar problems, who are not yet the subject of an investigation by PWBA, 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 PWBA enforcement actions and civil penalties as well as applicable excise taxes. For more information about the VFCP see www.dol.gov/pwba.
Employers and workers can reach the Kansas City regional office at 816.426.5131 or PWBA’s Toll-Free Employee & Employer Hotline number, 1.866.275.7922, for help with problems relating to private-sector pension and health plans. The judgment was entered in the federal district court in Springfield, Illinois.
(Chao v. Passenger Transport, Inc.
Civil Action No. 02-3090)
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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.