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Harold and Sandra Kaplan, trustees of two employee
benefit plans for a Long Island company, pleaded guilty, respectively, to
embezzling from the company’s defined benefit and 401(k) plans and for
failing to maintain required documents for both plans, in violation of federal
pension law. Their pleas were entered on May 7 before Judge Arthur D. Spatt in
the U.S. District Court in Uniondale, N.Y.
The Kaplans, who are husband and wife, were
officers of Halpak Plastics, Inc., a plastics packaging company, and trustees
of its defined benefit and 401(k) plans. Halpak Plastics established the plans
to provide retirement benefits to Halpak employees. At the time of the
breaches, the defined benefit plan had approximately 38 participants and there
were 33 participants in the 401(k) plan.
Harold Kaplan pleaded guilty to a one-count felony
information that charged him with embezzling more than $170,000 of assets from
the company’s defined benefit plan and more than $48,000 from its 401(k)
plan. Sandra Kaplan pleaded guilty to a one-count misdemeanor information that
charged her with failing to keep, disclose and maintain required records
pertaining to both pension plans as required under the Employee Retirement
Income Security Act (ERISA).
Harold Kaplan’s guilty plea carries a maximum
penalty of five years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000, or both. Sandra
Kaplan’s plea carries a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment and a
fine of $100,000, or both.
The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced on
Sept. 10 in the U.S. District Court in Uniondale, N.Y. The case resulted from
an investigation by the New York Regional Office of the Pension and Welfare
Benefits Administration into violations of ERISA.
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U. S. v. Harold Kaplan
Criminal Action No.
97-429 (ADS)
U.S. v. Sandra Kaplan
Criminal Action No.
99-440 (ADS) |
