Labor Department files suit to restore losses to Massey Wholesale Co. Inc. SIMPLE IRA Plan in Dawson, Georgia

Date of Action: Feb. 26, 2015

Type of Action: Complaint

Name(s) of Defendant(s): Massey Wholesale Co. Inc., Massey Wholesale Co. SIMPLE IRA Retirement Plan, Larry W. Massey as executor of the estate of Mary S. Massey and Larry W. Massey

Allegations: In 2001, Massey Wholesale Co. Inc., a janitorial supply distribution center based in Dawson, Georgia, established a SIMPLE IRA Retirement Plan for its employees. During the course of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the agency found that from Oct. 3, 2008 through Aug. 3, 2012, Massey Wholesale Co. Inc., Mary S. Massey and Larry W. Massey failed in their fiduciary responsibility to forward $38,986.70 in employee contributions to the plan and also allowed the funds to be commingled with general company assets. Additionally, from Jan. 4, 2008 through Aug. 3, 2012 the defendants withheld employee contributions and failed to timely forward them to the plan in accordance with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, resulting in $19,471.35 in lost earnings owed to the non-fiduciary plan participants.

Resolution: The department is asking the court to order the defendants to restore to the plan all losses, including interest or lost opportunity costs, which occurred as a result of their breaches of fiduciary obligations or as a result of a co-fiduciary's breach; order that the plan set off the individual plan accounts of any defendant against the amount of losses, including lost opportunity costs, resulting from their fiduciary breaches;  permanently enjoin the defendants from serving as fiduciary, administrator, officer, trustee, custodian, agent, employee, representative, or having control over the assets of any employee benefit plan subject to ERISA; enjoin the defendants from engaging in any further action in violation of Title I of ERISA; award plaintiff the costs of this action; and provide such other relief as may be just and equitable.

Court: United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, Savannah Division

Docket Number: 4:15-cv-00050-WTM-GRS

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