News Release

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Release Date: December 28, 2007
Release Number: 07-1941-NAT
Contact Name: Richard Manning/Gloria Della
Phone Number: 202.693.4676

U.S. Labor Department announces FY 2007 enforcement results for the Employee Benefits Security Administration

Monetary results at $1.5 billion with 115 criminal indictments

Washington - Bradford P. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), today announced that the agency achieved monetary results of $1.5 billion and 115 criminal indictments in fiscal year 2007.

EBSA closed 3,236 civil investigations in Fiscal Year 2007. Nearly 75% of those investigations resulted in correction of violations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). The agency also achieved a 43% increase in the number of criminal investigations closed with either a guilty plea or with a criminal conviction.

Criminal investigations, including participation in criminal investigations with other law enforcement agencies, led to the indictment of 115 individuals for crimes involving pension, health and other benefit programs.

Campbell said, “Over the seven years of the Bush Administration, we have achieved record results totaling $10.7 billion and 806 criminal indictments. These results represent a victory for millions of American workers, retirees and their family members whose benefits were protected through EBSA’s comprehensive program of vigorous enforcement and compliance assistance. Our results demonstrate a strong, fair and effective program that protects the benefits of the 150 million Americans covered by private-sector benefit plans.”

Approximately $96 million of the 2007 results were achieved through informal complaint resolution under the agency’s participant assistance program. The agency’s popular compliance assistance program, the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP), continued to yield tremendous success with 1,451 applications and $130 million in results. In fiscal year 2007, employers, plan officials, service providers and other fiduciaries used the program to protect workers by reporting and correcting violations of ERISA.

A fact sheet on agency results is available on EBSA’s Web site at www.dol.gov/ebsa.

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