US Labor Department sues Duluth, Ga., software services company to restore losses to 401(k) retirement plan participants and beneficiaries

ATLANTA – The U.S. Department of Labor is suing CSG Group, and the company’s owner, Thomas Wimberly, for violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and to restore losses suffered by participants and beneficiaries of the company’s 401(k) profit sharing plan.

An investigation by the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration found that between 2005 and 2010 the defendants allegedly withheld $15,562.50 in employee contributions but never forwarded them to the plan. Funds were commingled with the general assets of the company.

The defendants allegedly failed to forward an additional $163,295.90 in employee contributions to the plan in a timely manner, thus causing employees to lose earnings and opportunity costs on those funds.

“Employees make contributions to their 401(k) plan with the intention of using those funds for their retirement, not to be used as an involuntary interest-free loan to the company,” said Isabel Colon, EBSA acting regional director in Atlanta.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by the Labor Department’s Office of the Solicitor, the lawsuit asks the court to order the defendants to restore all losses including lost interest and opportunity costs and require that any claims of the defendants on plan assets be offset against the losses owed to the plan. The suit seeks to permanently bar the defendants from serving in a fiduciary capacity to any employee benefit plan subject to ERISA and that an independent fiduciary be appointed to oversee the plan.

CSG Group provides accounting and business software services to companies with headquarters in Duluth, Ga. As of June 2010, the 401(k) plan had 15 participants and assets of approximately $389,673.54.

This case is part of EBSA’s employee contribution initiative 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 www.dol.gov/ebsa.

Solis v. The CSG Group Inc.
Civil Action File Number 1:11-cv-01080-SCJ

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