Defendants to restore nearly $37K to SIMPLE plan of Philadelphia public accounting firm following US Labor Department lawsuit

Date of Action: July 1, 2015

Name(s) of Defendant(s): Howard Lapensohn; Lapensohn Accounting Professionals LLC; and Lapensohn Accounting Professionals LLC SIMPLE plan

Allegations: Based on an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Secretary of Labor filed a complaint alleging the following:

Howard Lapensohn is the owner and president of Lapensohn Accounting Professionals LLC, a certified public accounting firm in Philadelphia. In 2008, the company established the Lapensohn Accounting Professionals LLC SIMPLE plan for its employees. The plan was funded by elective employee contributions withheld from the paychecks of its participants by the company and a mandatory employer match.

Lapensohn and the company were responsible for making decisions concerning the remittance of elective contributions and mandatory employer match contributions to the plan and therefore, were plan fiduciaries.  Between April 22, 2008, and December 2011, Lapensohn and the company failed to ensure that employee contributions and the mandatory employer matching contributions were remitted to and collected by the plan in a timely manner. The Labor Department filed suit against the defendants on June 12, 2015.

Resolution: The court ordered Lapensohn and the company to restore a total of $36,828.10 to the plan. The total includes $28,321.20 in delinquent employee contributions and mandatory employer matching contributions, as well as lost opportunity costs of $8,506.90.

Court: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Civil Action Number: 15-3316

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