NEW YORK – Accurate company valuations are critical when it comes to establishing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Too often, company owners seek to inflate the price to benefit themselves at the expense of workers. The U.S. Department of Labor alleges that this is what Dr. Roy Geronemus, owner of the Manhattan-based Laser and Skin Surgery Center of New York, and plan trustee Samuel Ginsberg did when they created the Laser Skin and Surgery Center Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 2009.

Employer name: Hope Elephants

Inspection site: 49 Hatchet Rd., Hope, Maine 04847

Date of incident: James Laurita, co-founder, curator and elephant manager of the Hope Elephant Refuge was found dead in the refuge's compound on Sept. 9, 2014, with a crushed chest.

NEW YORK — Accurate company valuations are critical when it comes to establishing an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Too often, company owners seek to inflate the price to benefit themselves at the expense of workers. The U.S. Department of Labor alleges that this is what Dr. Roy Geronemus, owner of the Manhattan-based Laser and Skin Surgery Center of New York, and plan trustee Samuel Ginsberg did when they created the Laser Skin and Surgery Center Employee Stock Ownership Plan in 2009.

Date of Action: March 9, 2015

Type of Action: Consent Judgment and Order

Name of Defendant: Electronic Business Solutions Inc.

Niece Products of Kansas faces more than $60K in fines for endangering workers

Date of Action: March 9, 2015

Type of Action: Judgment to permanently enjoin from serving as a fiduciary to any retirement benefit plan subject to the Employee Retirement Security Income Act of 1974 and from violating the act.

Name(s) of Defendant: Alvin Martin Mavis

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs is expanding the means by which documents and information can be transmitted between OWCP and its stakeholders. A direct final rule and a proposed rule published in the March 12 issue of the Federal Register apply to claims handled by OWCP's longshore program.

Who: U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez; former Labor Secretaries William E. Brock, Elaine Chao and Alexis M. Herman; Victoria Reggie Kennedy; Patrick Kennedy; Edward Kennedy Jr., William Kennedy Smith; U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin and Elizabeth Warren; and former congressman John Tierney.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor will host three town hall meetings on March 18 in Westminster, Colorado, to provide nuclear weapons workers, including those who worked at the Rocky Flats Plant, with information about the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act and the medical benefits provided to approved claimants under the program.

Roofing contractor flouts prior court order; continues to put workers at risk of falls

BOSTON — A Maine roofing contractor's continued refusal to obey a federal court order to correct safety hazards and pay more than $400,000 in fines could send him to jail.

Employer name and location: Framing, siding, and roofing contractor K&F Construction Inc., P.O. Box 6013, Martinsburg, W. Va. 25402

Inspection site: Suncrest Village, 1000 Suncrest Village, Morgantown, W. Va. 26505, where K&F Construction employees performed roofing operations as part of the construction of three-story townhomes.

BRIDGETON, Mo. — A 58-year-old maintenance worker was killed after he was pinned between a scrap metal table and a railing at Hussmann Corp.'s Bridgeton facility, an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found. OSHA said the company failed to prevent the table from lowering unintentionally. As a result, Hussmann received three willful and 12 serious safety violations after the Sept. 6, 2014, incident.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A worker alleging the existence of asbestos, mold and hygiene hazards led to an inspection of an Advance Auto Parts store in Kansas City, where the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration found one repeated and 10 serious safety and health violations with fines of $60,000.

Employer name: Franco Roofing, Inc., roof construction contractor, Yonkers, N.Y.

Inspection site: 58 Edgemont Road, Katonah, N.Y. 10536

Date inspection initiated: OSHA's Tarrytown Area Office began an inspection on Oct. 20, 2014, when OSHA inspectors who were driving by the worksite observed employees working without fall protection.

Employer name: Hi Temp Northlake LLC, operating as Bluewater Thermal Solutions in Northlake, Illinois, a subsidiary of Bluewater Thermal Solutions of Greenville, South Carolina. The company specializes in heat treating powder metal parts.

Inspection site: Bluewater Thermal Solutions, 75 E. Lake St. Northlake, Illinois

Date of Action: Feb. 26, 2015

Type of Action: Complaint

Name(s) of Defendant(s): Massey Wholesale Co. Inc., Massey Wholesale Co. SIMPLE IRA Retirement Plan, Larry W. Massey as executor of the estate of Mary S. Massey and Larry W. Massey

Date of Action: Feb. 23, 2015

Type of Action: Complaint

Name(s) of Defendant(s): Vic International Corp., Vic International 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan, James Victor Green, Kelly Milligan, and Paul Kelley

Employer: Paradise Inn Hawaii LLC, doing business as Tsukiji Fish Market Restaurant

Site: One restaurant location at the Ala Moana Shopping Center in Honolulu

Employer: Long Feng Corporation, doing business as New XO Market in Saipan and Tian Hong Market in Tinian

Site: Grocery store, poker arcade and coin laundry establishments in Saipan and Tinian

Date of Action: Feb. 23, 2015

Type of Action: Complaint

Name(s) of Defendant(s): Vic International Corp., Vic International 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan, James Victor Green, Kelly Milligan, and Paul Kelley