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Washington, DC - Today Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced the appointment of five new members for the 2005 Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans. The new members will serve three-year terms.

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Washington, DC - Each year approximately 1,650 401(k) plans holding $868 million in assets and covering 33,000 workers are abandoned. Today, the U.S. Department of Labor announced proposed rules to allow financial institutions to take responsibility for these plans and distribute the plans’ assets to workers and their families.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) today released its "2004 Program Highlights" annual report. This is the first annual report to be issued by OLMS since 1978 and highlights the fiscal year success of the agency and the importance of its role in supporting America's workforce.

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Atlanta, Georgia - The former chief executive officer and 401(k) plan trustee of defunct Innopet Brands Corporation, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, have agreed to restore $12,500 as restitution for their failure to forward employee contributions to the company’s 401(k).

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Newark, New Jersey - The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit to appoint an independent fiduciary for Paramus, New Jersey-based Medserv Corporation’s 401(k) Savings & Profit Sharing Plan after the plan was abandoned by its trustee. The independent fiduciary will terminate the plan and distribute the plan’s assets to participants.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the appointment of Donald G. Shalhoub as the first Ombudsman of the compensation program created by new Part E of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA).

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Atlanta, Georgia - The owners of defunct Galloway Trucking, Inc. in Monroe, North Carolina agreed to restore $27,766.91 to the company’s retirement plan as restitution for failure to remit employee contributions and loan repayments to the plan.

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San Francisco, California - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit alleging the president of a Diamond Bar, California, mortgage lender withdrew employees’ contributions from the company’s 401(k) plan and failed to return the money to the plan participants.

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Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Atlanta, Georgia - The U.S. Department of Labor sued RW Construction Inc., Hoschton, Georgia, and its owner to recover more than $12,132.44 in employee contributions owed to the company’s SIMPLE IRA Plan. The suit charged Ronald B. Woodward and his company with failure to timely remit assets to the plan and allegedly using the money to pay corporate expenses.

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New York, New York - The former plan administrator of the Solidarity of Labor Organizations Health Benefit Fund, Bronx, New York, has been sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison plus three years of supervised release for embezzling from a health fund. William Fagello also was ordered to restore $107,000 to the health plan.

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Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Labor obtained a judgment ordering Washington, DC-based A & D Insurance, Inc. and its president to restore $955,515 to its employee benefit plan clients. The defendants allegedly deposited money collected to purchase insurance for the 27 plans into the company’s corporate accounts.

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Chicago, Illinois - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued the Hirschy, Inc., doing business as Germania Hall, Menasha, Wisconsin, and Christopher Fiedler, president and sole shareholder of Hirschy, for failing to forward employee contributions to the company’s IRA plan and to segregate the plan contributions from the general operating assets of the company.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Department of Labor has fined Wal-Mart $135,540 in civil money penalties for violating the youth employment provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The department's Wage and Hour Division found that Wal-Mart allowed teenage workers to operate hazardous equipment resulting in one teenager being injured while operating a chain saw.

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San Francisco, California - The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) today announced an extension of the deadline for filing Form 5500 and Form 5500 EZ annual report/returns due to damages from severe storms, flooding and mudslides in California.

WASHINGTON—Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao today called upon non-profits, small businesses, corporations and individuals that have demonstrated exemplary and innovative efforts in advancing the employment and workplace environment of people with disabilities to submit their entries for the 2005 Secretary of Labor's New Freedom Initiative Award.

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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued bankrupt Foley Jewelers Christiana, Inc. (FJC) of Newark, Delaware, its president, and the administrator of its 401(k) plan for failing to remit and timely forward employee contributions to the 401(k) plan. The department also filed an adversary legal action in bankruptcy court against FJC’s president seeking to have his debt to the plan deemed non-dischargeable.

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San Francisco, California - The U.S. Department of Labor has sued two senior executives of Oakland-based Manna Consultants Inc. for failure to transfer employees’ contributions to the company’s 401(k) plan.

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Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Labor today announced proposed rules to implement provisions of the Pension Funding Equity Act of 2004, which require plan administrators of multiemployer pension plans to furnish annually a notice on the funding status of the plans.