Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Atlanta – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Business Financial Solutions Inc., which operated as Academic Financial Services, and trustees of its 401(k) plan, for alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) involving delinquent employee and employer contributions owed to the plan.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

Memphis, Tennessee – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued defunct Stephens Brothers Inc. of Memphis for abandonment of its 401(k) plan in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

Archived News Release — Caution: Information may be out of date.

San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Power & Data Technology, San Jose, California, and its president to recover $39,325 and distribute the assets remaining in the company’s abandoned 401(k) profit-sharing plan. The defunct company manufactured and distributed electrical components.

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Philadelphia — The U.S. Department of Labor has sued to obtain appointment of an independent fiduciary to oversee the 401(k) plan of C.R. Warner Inc., a defunct New Jersey company.

“We filed this case to ensure that the plan participants were able to recoup their retirement savings,” said Mabel Capolongo, regional director of the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) in Philadelphia.

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Pittsburgh – The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a default judgment removing West Chester, Pennsylvania-based Five Star Industrial Services Inc. as fiduciary of the company’s 401(k) profit-sharing plan and appointing Metro Benefits Inc. to be the plan’s independent fiduciary.

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Atlanta – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued Midland Employer Services of Brentwood, Tennessee, for failing to fulfill its fiduciary duties to the company’s 401(k) plan in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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Chicago - On Thursday December 18 a federal grand jury in Chicago, Illinois, indicted Beny Garneata for embezzlement and false statements related to the employee benefit plans of the Chicago Journeymen Plumbers’ Union Local 130 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 134.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) today announced its criminal enforcement data for November 2008. During the month, OLMS obtained five convictions and eight indictments, and payments or orders of restitution totaled more than $891,000. The office's November results bring its totals for fiscal year 2009, which began on Oct. 1, 2008, to 18 indictments, 15 convictions and payments or orders of restitution of $1,516,522. The bulk of the cases involved the embezzlement of union funds.

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Washington – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) today announced the availability of the 2008 Form M-1 annual report for multiple employer welfare arrangements (MEWAs). Plan administrators may use EBSA’s online filing system to expedite processing of the form.

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Shaker Heights, Ohio - The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court, Cleveland, requesting the appointment of an independent fiduciary to terminate the FFS Inc. 401(k) retirement plan and to distribute plan assets to the participants.

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Traverse City, Michigan – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued the president and fiduciary of the 401(k) plan of Emergency Consultants Inc., Traverse City, for failing to forward contributions to the plan as soon as reasonably feasible, in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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Atlanta – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) has sued Computer Consulting Services Corp. in Atlanta and two fiduciaries to recover assets on behalf of the company’s 401(k) plan participants.

BOSTON — 888 Consulting Group Inc., a Dedham, Mass., temporary employee placement company doing business as TAC Worldwide, has agreed to pay 973 employees across the country a total of $1,866,943 in overtime back wages to resolve a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor alleging violations of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

"We are very pleased that the department has succeeded in securing more than $1.8 million in back wages for these workers who were not properly paid for overtime," said Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao.

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Bismarck, North Dakota – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued LAS International of Bismarck and its owners for failing to forward $39,866.18 in delinquent employee and employer contributions, and to timely remit employee contributions and loan repayment to the company’s 401(k) retirement savings plan.

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FRANKFORT, Ill. – The U.S. Department of Labor has sued the owner and 401(k) plan fiduciary of J&L Electronic Service Inc. for improperly using 401(k) contributions deducted from employees' paychecks to benefit the company in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

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Washington – The U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. today released advance informational copies of the 2008 Form 5500 annual return/report and related instructions.

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Washington – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) today released Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) 2008-04, which provides guidance to the agency’s national and regional offices on the fidelity bonding requirements under section 412 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Officials from the United States, Central America and the Dominican Republic today held the first meeting of the Labor Affairs Council established under the Dominican RepublicCentral AmericaUnited States Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA).

The council is responsible for overseeing the implementation of, and for reviewing progress under, the Labor Chapter of the DR-CAFTA, including the activities of the Labor Cooperation and Capacity Building Mechanism established under the Labor Chapter.

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Atlanta — The owner of defunct Wesco Signs Inc., Concord, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro to two counts of embezzlement of assets from the company’s 401(k) and health plans.

NEW ORLEANS — Ceres Environmental Services Inc., headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., has agreed to pay $1,500,718 in back wages to 2,256 former debris removal workers. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division found that these workers were not properly paid for work they performed throughout Louisiana in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as required by the Service Contract Act (SCA) and the Contract Work Hours Safety Standards Act (CWHSSA). The workers were employed by 266 subcontractors of Ceres.