Alabama Executive Pleads Guilty to Embezzling Pension Assets Following U.S. Labor Department Investigation

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Atlanta - The former vice president of H&H Doors and Hardware Inc. of Dothan, Alabama pleaded guilty to two counts of embezzling employee benefit plan assets and using the money for his own benefit. The plea agreement states Mark Hartzog is responsible for $524,703 in losses.

“We will aggressively enforce the law to protect the retirement funds of working men and women,” said Bradford P. Campbell, acting assistant secretary of the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). “This case sends a clear message that those who steal plan assets will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

The Atlanta regional office of the EBSA investigated the case.

Hartzog was indicted in September 2005 on 18 counts of embezzling the assets of an employee benefit plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). He also was charged with converting the assets of the H&H Doors and Hardware Inc. Profit Sharing Plan to his own personal use between October 18, 2000 and September 10, 2001.

The guilty plea was entered by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Southern Division. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama.

Hartzog is to be sentenced March 14, 2007.

(U.S. v. Hartzog)
Criminal No. 1:05-CR 190-MEF

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