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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - The U.S. Department
of Labor has sued IT Factory Solution Inc. (ITFS), a defunct Delaware
corporation, asking the court to appoint an independent fiduciary to
terminate the company’s retirement plan and distribute its assets to
participants and beneficiaries.
ITFS became plan trustee and administrator when it
acquired Solutions By Design Inc., the Virginia company that started the
plan.
An investigation, conducted by the Washington, D.C.,
district office of the department’s Employee Benefit Security
Administration (EBSA), determined that ITFS did not take fiduciary
responsibility, when it ceased operations in December 2001, for the
continued operation and administration of the plan and its assets. The
company also failed to appoint anyone to assume that responsibility. Plan
participants and beneficiaries have not been able to access their
individual account balances since that time.
“When a plan is abandoned, so are the workers who
invested in it,” said Mabel Capolongo, EBSA regional director in
Philadelphia. “We took this action to ensure that plan participants will
be able to access the funds that are rightfully theirs.”
Plans become “orphan plans” when they are abandoned
by all fiduciaries designated to manage and operate them, leaving
participants without a way to transact business or communicate with the
plan.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Delaware, the suit seeks to appoint a court-approved independent fiduciary
to administer the termination of the plan and the distribution of plan
assets. As of February 2005, the plan had 68 participants and $1,040,908
in assets.
Employers and workers can reach EBSA’s Washington,
D.C. district office at 301.713.2000 or can contact EBSA’s toll-free
number, 1.866.444.EBSA (3272), for help with problems relating to
private-sector retirement and health plans.
(Chao v. IT Factory Solution, Inc.)
Civil Action No. 1:05-cv-843 |
