WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration today announced two proposed rules under the Affordable Care Act to protect businesses and workers whose health benefits are provided through a multiple employer welfare arrangement. MEWAs frequently have been used by scam artists and criminals to defraud consumers, resulting in an inability to pay medical claims. When such MEWAs become insolvent, they may leave consumers with substantial unpaid medical bills.

Date of Action:  Nov. 10, 2011

Type of Action:  Consent order and judgment

Names of Defendant: Family Care Management Plan and Michael Kaplan.

Allegations:  The lawsuit, filed in U.S. district court in Chicago, alleged that Family Care Management and trustee Michael Kaplan, failed to properly administer and terminate the company’s plan, which has prevented qualified participants from obtaining distributions of their individual account balances.

WEEHAWKEN, N.J. – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Weehawken-based Worldwide Trade Resources Inc. for failing to administer and terminate the defunct company’s 401(k) plan, in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. As of Jan. 31, the plan had 52 participants and assets totaling $2.2 million, the latest data available.

Date of Action:  Oct. 25, 2011

Type of Action:  consent judgment and order

Names of Defendants: Frank Mitacek III, Susan Mitacek, and the Frank’s International, Inc. 401(k) Plan. 

Allegations: The defendants breached the fiduciary duties under ERISA by failing to remit, and remit timely, employee contributions and participant loan payments to the plan, causing losses to the plan of $21,853.91, including lost-opportunity costs. 

Date of Action:  Nov. 8, 2011

Action: Consent order and judgment

Names of Defendants:  Christina Metzler, Westside Cabinet & Millwork Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees Individual Retirement Accounts Plan located in Madison, Wis.

Allegations: Christina Metzler was the treasurer of Westside Cabinet and Millwork Inc., and fiduciary of the Westside Cabinet & Millwork SIMPLE IRA Plan, which was established in 1997.

LOS ANGELES – Two former corporate officers of an East Los Angeles community hospital have been ordered to repay $600,692 plus post-judgment interest to the ElaStar Community Hospital Retirement Savings Plan, according to the terms of a consent judgment and order filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California’s Southern Division.

Date of Action: Oct. 27, 2011

Type of Action: Consent order and judgment

Name(s) of Defendant: Joseph R. Kvidera, individually and as a fiduciary to the Procedo, Inc. 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan a/k/a the Procedo, Inc. 401(k) & Profit Sharing Plan.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration has released a Securities and Exchange Commission staff no-action letter relating to EBSA's participant-level fee disclosure regulation and Rule 482 under the Securities Act of 1933. The letter states that information required by and that complies with the fee disclosure regulation that is provided by a plan administrator, or designee, to plan participants or beneficiaries will be treated as a communication that satisfies the requirements of Rule 482.

Date of Action: Oct. 27, 2011

Type of Action: Complaint

Names of Defendant: James T. Ledford, Davis Equipment Sales & Service, Inc., and the Davis Equipment Sales & Service, Inc., Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees Individual Retirement Accounts Plan located in Salem, Ind.

Date of Action:  Sept. 30, 2011

Type of Action:  Consent judgment and order

Name(s) of Defendant: Otorhinolaryngology Associates, P.C., Otorhinolaryngology Associates, P.C. Profit Sharing Plan, and Dr. Rickey Gene Love

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration and the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance will co-host a free health law compliance assistance seminar from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, Oct. 25, and Wednesday, Oct. 26. The event will be held at the Scarritt–Bennett Center, located at 1008 S. 19th Ave., Nashville, Tenn. 37212.

MARSHFIELD, Wis. – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued B & K Builders Inc. of Marshfield and its co-owners, Robert Aschenbrenner and Kenneth Staab, to restore $17,835.41 plus interest to the company’s 401(k) profit-sharing plan. Additionally, the suit seeks restitution of $97,307.79 from B & K Builders Inc. and Staab as fiduciaries to the B&K Builders Inc. Prevailing Wage Plan. The case is the result of an investigation by the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration into alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

DICKERSON, Md. – Neutron Products Inc. President Jackson A. Ransohoff and Treasurer James W. Jordan will restore $100,000 to the company’s employee savings plan, according to the terms of a consent judgment that resolves a U.S. Department of Labor lawsuit.

The suit alleged that the defendants, who are the plan’s trustees, violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by failing to collect and remit amounts owed to the plan by the company from January 1990 to September 2010.

Date of Action:  Oct. 7, 2011

Type of Action:  Consent order and judgment

Names of Defendant: James and Carrie Jendusa, individually and as a fiduciaries to the Jendusa Engineering Associates Inc. 401(k) Plan

Allegations: The Jendusas, in their capacity as fiduciaries to the Jendusa Engineering Associates, Inc. 401(k) Plan, failed to ensure that $10,441.53 in participant contributions for the period of Jan. 1, 2007, through Feb. 15, 2008, were forwarded to the plan.

Date of Action:  Oct. 3, 2011

Name(s) of Defendant(s):  BHMA LLC

PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against Sterling Printing and its president, John Louis Roberts, as well as Mara Scanlon Roberts, chief executive officer of M.R. Graphics LLC, for violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by failing to remit worker contributions to a 401(k) plan serving the employees of both Pittsburgh companies.

Date of Action: Oct. 6, 2011

Type of Action:  Complaint

Names of Defendant: Glen Zucker, individually and as a fiduciary to the Grant Saint John 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan; Truprint Services, Inc. d.b.a. Grant Saint John; and Grant Saint John 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan

MEDIA, Pa. – The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit against now defunct J.M. Singley & Associates Inc. of Media and the trustees of the company’s 401(k) plan, J. Brant Singley and Bradly Weiss, for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. 

Date of Action:  Sept. 30, 2011

Type of Action:  Complaint

Name(s) of Defendant: Nicholas C. Caro, individually and as a fiduciary to the N.C. Caro M.D., S.C. Defined Benefit Plan; and, Nicholas C. Caro’s medical practice, N.C. Caro M.D., S.C., as administrator of and fiduciary to the plan.

PITTSBURGH – The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania has approved a consent judgment and order to restore $67,138 in plan assets and interest to the employee 401(k) plan of Liberty-Pittsburgh Systems Inc. The action resolves a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor against the company and its chief executive officer, Kevin T. Weir.