Fiduciaries to restore $485K to Bridgeport, Connecticut, retirement plan

Date of Action: March 19, 2015

Type of Action: Amended Consent Judgment and Order

Names of Defendant: Fletcher-Thompson, Inc. Savings Plan and Michael S. Marcinek, in their capacities as fiduciaries of the Fletcher-Thompson Inc. Savings Plan

Allegations: In 1984, Fletcher-Thompson, Inc., an architectural, engineering and interior design firm headquartered in Bridgeport, Connecticut, established The Fletcher-Thompson Savings Plan to provide retirement benefits for its participants, company employees, and their beneficiaries. It is an elective wage deferral plan in which employee contributions are deducted from their salary and remitted to the plan for investment in accordance with each participant’s election.

Fletcher-Thompson, Inc. is the plan sponsor; Michael S. Marcinek, the company’s president, managing partner, and majority owner is the plan trustee. Both are fiduciaries of and parties in interest to the plan. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act requires that they forward the withheld contributions and loan repayments to the plan.

An investigation by the Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Services Administration found that, beginning in 2008, the company became delinquent in remitting employee deferrals and loan repayments to the plan. The company ceased remitting anything at all to the plan as of May, 2012. Nevertheless, it continued to withhold contributions and loan repayments from participants' pay. The total amount outstanding, including lost interest, is $485,560.77. The Labor Department filed a complaint in U.S. District Court against the defendants on June 9, 2014.

Resolution: The defendants agreed to enter into a consent judgment. The judgment orders them to restore $485,560.77 to the plan in installments of no less than $40,463.40 per month for 12 months, ensure that non-fiduciary plan participants receive the share to which they are entitled and provide a full accounting to EBSA each month. The order also prohibits Michael S. Marcinek from ever again serving as a fiduciary to an ERISA-covered benefit plan.

Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

Docket Number: 3:14-cv-00826-SRU

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