US Labor Department sues defunct Lexington, SC, steel fabricator to restore more than $7,000 in losses suffered by retirement plan participants

LEXINGTON, S.C. – The U.S. Department of Labor is suing the former Rogers Steel Co. and its owner to restore losses suffered by participants and beneficiaries of the company’s savings incentive match plan for employees individual retirement account, or SIMPLE IRA plan. Rogers Steel Co. was a steel fabricator located in Lexington.

The lawsuit followed an investigation by the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration into alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. The suit alleges the company and owner Joseph Rogers III failed to forward $7,553.95 in employee contributions withheld from employees’ paychecks between December 2006 and May 2009. The assets, which were comingled with the general assets of the company, were never forwarded to the plan.

“Plan participants are counting on these funds for their retirement and the fiduciaries have no right to take funds belonging to employees in order to benefit the company,” said R.C. Marshall, EBSA’s regional director in Atlanta, Ga.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for South Carolina-Columbia Division, the suit asks the court to order the defendants to restore all losses and to offset any claims of the defendants to plan assets against the losses owed to the plan. The suit also seeks to permanently bar the defendants from serving in a fiduciary capacity to any employee benefit plan subject to ERISA and to appoint an independent fiduciary at the defendants’ expense to oversee the plan.

This case is part of EBSA’s employee contribution project to safeguard workers’ contributions to 401(k) and health benefit plans and was investigated by EBSA’s Atlanta Regional Office. Employers and workers can reach EBSA’s Atlanta Regional Office at 404-302-3900 or contact EBSA toll-free at 866-444-3272 for help with problems relating to private sector retirement and health plans. For more information, visit http://www.dol.gov/ebsa.

Solis v. Rogers Steel Company

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