US Department of Labor files suit, seeks independent fiduciary for abandoned employee benefit plan of defunct New York investment house

NEW YORK — The U.S. Department of Labor has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to seek the appointment of an independent fiduciary and trustee to administer an abandoned New York City pension benefit plan. The plan has $308,438 in assets and 26 participants.

The Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc. Employee Savings Plan was established in May 1997. Alberto Vilar, a co-founder of Amerindo Investment Advisors, was the plan's fiduciary and sole trustee, with responsibility for its administration, day-to-day management and distribution of assets.

In 2008, Vilar was convicted on 12 counts of conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and making false statements. Vilar appealed his conviction, but is prohibited under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act from serving as a fiduciary, administrator or officer of any ERISA-covered benefit plan.

Vilar stopped performing his fiduciary duties when the company ceased operations in 2005. A new fiduciary was not appointed to manage the plan or oversee distribution of the plan's assets, and no individual assumed responsibility for the plan.

Under ERISA, plans must be managed by fiduciaries and their assets must be held in a trust by trustees. Lacking a plan fiduciary and trustee, participants and beneficiaries cannot obtain plan information, make investments or collect retirement benefits.

The case resulted from an investigation conducted by the New York Regional Office of the department's Employee Benefits Security Administration. The department's Regional Office of the Solicitor in New York litigated the case.

Workers participating in employer-sponsored health and retirement benefit plans who feel that they have been denied a benefit inappropriately or have questions about benefits laws, can visit http://www.askebsa.dol.gov or call an EBSA benefits adviser at 866-444-EBSA (3272).

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Civil Action Number:14-CV-1577 Perez v. Amerindo Investment Advisors Inc. Employee Savings Plan