Dickerson, Md., company to restore $100,000 to employee savings plan, resolving US Labor Department lawsuit

DICKERSON, Md. – Neutron Products Inc. President Jackson A. Ransohoff and Treasurer James W. Jordan will restore $100,000 to the company’s employee savings plan, according to the terms of a consent judgment that resolves a U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit.

The suit alleged that the defendants, who are the plan’s trustees, violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by failing to collect and remit amounts owed to the plan by the company from January 1990 to September 2010.

In October 2010, the defendants began making quarterly payments to the plan in the amount of $5,000. Under the consent judgment, entered in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, the defendants must continue to make restitution to the plan, including interest, until it is made whole and also will pay a 20 percent penalty on the recovered funds. As of Oct. 4, 2011, $20,000 had been restored to the plan.

“Fiduciaries have a legal obligation to act in the best interest of the plan and its participants,” said Mabel Capolongo, director of the Philadelphia Regional Office of the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. “The Labor Department will hold fiduciaries accountable when they fail to meet this obligation.”

The case was litigated by the department’s Regional Office of the Solicitor in Philadelphia and resulted from an investigation by EBSA’s Washington District Office, which is located in Silver Spring, Md.

Employers and workers can contact EBSA’s Washington District Office at 202-693-8700 or toll-free at 866-444-3272 for help with problems relating to private sector pension and health plans. Additional information can be found at www.dol.gov/ebsa.

Solis v. Jackson Ransohoff et al., defendants
Civil Action Number: 8:11-cv-02772-AW

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U.S. Department of Labor news materials are accessible at www.dol.gov. The information above is available in large print, Braille, audio tape or disc from the COAST office upon request by calling 202-693-7828 or TTY 202-693-7755.