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Buckeye Technical Services, Inc. in Columbus,
Ohio, and trustees of its 401(k) plan have been ordered to repay $34,944.63 and
the trustees have agreed to waive any rights to benefits from the plan as part
of a consent order and judgment obtained today by the U. S. Department of
Labor.
The trustees also were permanently barred from
serving as fiduciaries to any employee benefit plans governed by the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Money restored to the plan will be
credited to the individual accounts of participants or distributed to them.
The court action resolves a Labor Department
lawsuit filed on Feb. 3, 1998, against the company and trustees Myron G. Place
and William R. Kugel Jr. The lawsuit alleged that the trustees withheld
voluntary plan contributions from employees’ paychecks from October 1992
to June 30, 1995.
Buckeye Technical Services, which filed for
bankruptcy in 1997, intends to file a plan of reorganization with the
bankruptcy court relating to the company’s liability to make court-ordered
monthly payments to the plan. The 401(k) plan was created in 1992 to provide
benefits upon retirement or in the event of undue financial hardship.
The judgment resulted from an investigation
conducted by the Cincinnati Regional Office of the Pension and Welfare Benefits
Administration into alleged violations of ERISA. The judgment was entered on
Aug. 25, in federal district court in Columbus, Ohio.
Herman v. Buckeye Technical Services, Inc.
Civil Action No. C298-0140 |
