The U.S. Department of Labor has announced three new cases against companies in which it alleges participants in retirement plans were being harmed.
Two of the cases, Perez v. Ferguson et al. and Perez v. Fisher et al., involve charges that pre-tax pension contributions were never sent to the appropriate funds. In the third case, Harris v. Koresko et al., a court found it likely the Labor Department would be successful in prosecuting its allegations that the defendants breached ERISA laws.
In that case, the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania ordered the defendants – including PennMont Benefit Services Inc. – removed from their positions at the Single Employer Welfare Benefit Plan Trust and the Regional Employers Assurance League Voluntary Employees' Beneficiary Association Trust.
Recommended For You
The court also appointed an independent fiduciary to distribute the plan's assets.
In the Ferguson case, the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for Central Illinois claimed that Roger D. Ferguson and Industrial Surfacing Corp., as fiduciaries to the Industrial Surfacing Corp. 401(k) Plan, failed to forward $47,636.44 in employee pre-tax contributions to the plan from May 2010 to April 2011. At the end of last year, the plan's assets were $17,899.60.
The Labor Department seeks to have Ferguson make restitution to the plan and remove Ferguson and the company as fiduciaries. It also asked the court to appoint an independent fiduciary to administer and terminate the plan. The company was dissolved last year.
In Fisher, the U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois ruled that Fisher & Partners Structural Engineers Inc. was liable for $33,409.80 in employer and employee contributions never sent to the company's SIMPLE IRA. The company was removed as fiduciaries of the plan and banned from serving in that capacity for any plan subject to ERISA.
The complaint alleged that from 2008 to 2011, David Fisher and Fisher & Partners Structural Engineers Inc. did not send $9,640.96 in employee pre-tax contributions and an additional $21,852.94 in employer contributions to the plan from January 2008 to January 2011. The judgment included repayment of court costs.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
