WASHINGTON, DC – Today the U.S. Department of Labor announced the appointments of five new members as well as chair and vice chair to the 2018 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans, known as the ERISA Advisory Council.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor is helping millions of working Americans gain access to quality, affordable health insurance for themselves and their families.

Many small businesses and their employees have struggled with government restrictions that limit access to quality, affordable health coverage. This Association Health Plan (AHP) reform will address many of the inequities between small and large businesses in access to that coverage.

CHICAGO, IL – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into an agreement with the fiduciaries of the National Allied Workers Union (NAWU) Local 831 Insurance Trust Fund to restore $1,113,636 to the Chicago-based health insurance trust fund after an investigation found violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The fiduciaries will make an immediate payment of $813,636 to the NAWU Local 831 Insurance Trust Fund – Claims Reserve Account and $300,000 to the NAWU Local 831 Insurance Trust Fund – Independent Fiduciary Payment Account.

WASHINGTON, DC – Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and Brighthouse Life Insurance Company have agreed to work with the U.S. Department of Labor to determine whether more than 2,000 retirement plans in their custody are abandoned. If plans are found to be abandoned, the companies will submit them to the Department's Abandoned Plan Program (APP). This may result in distributions of up to approximately $116 million to 20,000 participants. Ascensus Trust Company will be submitting plans to the Abandoned Plan Program on behalf of MetLife and Brighthouse.

McLEAN, VA - The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has ordered the appointment of an independent fiduciary to distribute $535,790 in assets to 24 participants of the Cambridge Technology Group Inc. 401(k) Plan and removed Cambridge Technology Group Inc. and the company’s president and CEO Andrew Carrington as fiduciaries in a default judgment entered on May 22, 2018.

DELRAY BEACH, FL – The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has sentenced the owners of Angel’s Recovery - a Delray Beach substance abuse recovery residence - to prison and ordered them to pay $4,045,364 in restitution after a federal investigation found that they had defrauded healthcare benefit programs. The court sentenced Tovah Jasperson and her father, Alan Martin Bostom, to 78 months and 30 months in prison, respectively, and three years of supervised release; and ordered they be jointly responsible for restitution.

BIRMINGHAM, AL – Following a civil investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama entered a consent judgment between the U.S. Department of Labor and Brandi Box Stephens, a former benefits administrator for the Iron Workers Local Union No. 92 Welfare Plan and the Iron Workers Local Union No.

RALEIGH, NC – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has ordered Thomas E. Beverly Sr. - former owner of the House of Lights Inc. - to pay restitution totaling $1,639,983 to the company’s profit-sharing plan. In addition to the restoration of funds, which includes lost earnings of $331,121 through mid-September 2018, Beverly will pay a successor fiduciary to handle remittance of this restitution to plan beneficiaries.

COOKEVILLE, TN – The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, Northeastern Division, has ordered eastern Tennessee eye care company Eye Centers of Tennessee LLC, its owner Dr. Larry E. Patterson, and its office administrator Raymond K. Mays to pay $971,622 in restitution to the company’s 401(k) profit-sharing plan after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) found violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

MONTPELIER, VT – After a U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration investigation, the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont has entered a consent judgment requiring the fiduciaries of the Sonnax Industries’ employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) to pay $2,225,000 to the plan.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration today announced Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2018-02, “Temporary Enforcement Policy on Prohibited Transaction Rules Applicable to Investment Advice Fiduciaries.” The FAB may be viewed here.

SPRINGFIELD, OH – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Cincinnati office of the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) found that Demmy Sand & Gravel LLC and Amy Demmy  ̶  fiduciary to the Demmy Sand & Gravel LLC Retirement Savings Plan  ̶  violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and are liable to the plan for $350,234.

CONCORD, NH – The U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire has sentenced Kevin Corriveau, owner and operator of Kevin Corriveau Painting Inc. of Nashua, to six months imprisonment; two years of supervised release, post-imprisonment; and a $25,000 criminal fine for one count of obstruction of justice.

CHICAGO, IL – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois has entered a judgment requiring Frank Eric Talbert to restore $64,704 in losses owed to The Proteus Group 401(k) Retirement Plan. Talbert served as the sole trustee to the Chicago architectural company’s retirement plan and was part owner and the primary manager of Proteus’s daily operations.

BOYNTON BEACH, FL – Following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has sentenced Jeffrey Adedoyin Williams – an employee at a Florida addiction treatment center – to 12 months and one day in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment after Williams pleaded guilty to obstruction of a criminal healthcare investigation.

CHICAGO, IL – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and the FBI has led to prison sentences for two former officials of Orlando, Florida-based First Farmers Financial LLC (FFF). The case, prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, resulted in guilty pleas by the pair for their involvement in the sale of $179 million in fraudulent loans to a Milwaukee company that provided investment services to 42 retirement plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) today released a Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) providing guidance to EBSA’s national and regional offices regarding proxy voting, shareholder engagement, and economically targeted investments by fiduciaries of private-sector employee benefit plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

LOS ANGELES, CA – The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has entered a consent judgment ordering Information Networking Company Inc., and its president John Benjamin Riddle, to restore $47,408 to the company’s employee benefit plan.

The judgment resolves a January 2018 lawsuit in which the U.S. Department of Labor alleged the defendants failed to remit employee contributions, collect matching employer contributions, and defaulted on a prior settlement agreement with the Department to restore funds owed to the plan.

BOYNTON BEACH, FL – Following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has sentenced Albert Samukia Jones-Saye, the owner of a substance abuse recovery residence, to 71 months in prison and three years of supervised release. The sentencing is in addition to $2,071,406 in court-ordered restitution by Jones-Saye following a previous guilty plea to conspiring with others to commit healthcare fraud.

NEWARK, NJ – After a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has sentenced Paul Moe, Sr., a member of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and general foreman for a Port Elizabeth terminal operator, to 24 months in prison for fraudulently collecting a nearly $500,000 annual salary, much of which was for work he never performed. The court also sentenced Moe to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $749,000 in restitution.