CHICAGO, IL – An investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and the FBI has led to prison sentences for two former officials of Orlando, Florida-based First Farmers Financial LLC (FFF). The case, prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, resulted in guilty pleas by the pair for their involvement in the sale of $179 million in fraudulent loans to a Milwaukee company that provided investment services to 42 retirement plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) today released a Field Assistance Bulletin (FAB) providing guidance to EBSA’s national and regional offices regarding proxy voting, shareholder engagement, and economically targeted investments by fiduciaries of private-sector employee benefit plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

LOS ANGELES, CA – The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has entered a consent judgment ordering Information Networking Company Inc., and its president John Benjamin Riddle, to restore $47,408 to the company’s employee benefit plan.

The judgment resolves a January 2018 lawsuit in which the U.S. Department of Labor alleged the defendants failed to remit employee contributions, collect matching employer contributions, and defaulted on a prior settlement agreement with the Department to restore funds owed to the plan.

BOYNTON BEACH, FL – Following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has sentenced Albert Samukia Jones-Saye, the owner of a substance abuse recovery residence, to 71 months in prison and three years of supervised release. The sentencing is in addition to $2,071,406 in court-ordered restitution by Jones-Saye following a previous guilty plea to conspiring with others to commit healthcare fraud.

NEWARK, NJ – After a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey has sentenced Paul Moe, Sr., a member of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and general foreman for a Port Elizabeth terminal operator, to 24 months in prison for fraudulently collecting a nearly $500,000 annual salary, much of which was for work he never performed. The court also sentenced Moe to three years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $749,000 in restitution.

BLAIRS, VA – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia has sentenced Felix Rafael Ginorio to time served plus two years supervised release, and has ordered him to pay restitution of $87,276 for stealing from an employee benefit plan, and failing to pay federal taxes. As a result of his conviction, Ginorio is barred from serving as a fiduciary or service provider to an employee benefit plan covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

TYLER, TX – After a U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) investigation, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has sentenced Douglas M. Pick, former CEO of Pharmaceutical Technologies, Inc. (PTI), to one year and one day in federal prison for paying illegal kickbacks in an effort to steer benefit plans to the company. The sentencing of Pick follows his Feb. 13, 2017, guilty plea.

CHICAGO, IL – After an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), a U.S. District Court in Chicago has sentenced Robert Melko, a former trustee of the Trust Fund for Apprentice & Journeyman Education &Training, Local 130 U.A., to six months of probation and 60 hours of community service after he pleaded guilty to willfully causing a false entry in books, records, reports, and statements in violation of Title 29 U.S. Code Section 439(c).

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – After a U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) investigation, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Oakland Division, has ordered a former pension benefit plan trustee to pay $234,271 in restitution and to serve one year of probation for violating federal criminal statutes pertaining to plans covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

CHICAGO, IL – The U.S. Department of Labor has entered into a settlement agreement with U.S. Fiduciary Services and three of its subsidiaries that provides for payment of more than $7 million to 42 retirement plans that suffered losses as a result of investments in fictitious loans made by Florida-based First Farmers Financial LLC (FFF).

HARTFORD, CT – After an investigation by the Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) and Office of Inspector General (OIG), Yolanda Silverio, a former eligibility coordinator for a Connecticut company that administers trust funds for public and private sector health benefit plans, has been sentenced by the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut to 10 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release.

PROVIDENCE, RI – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) participated in a multi-agency investigation related to pension fund theft that has resulted in a criminal conviction. John M. Hairabet, Jr., a former business associate and office manager of New England Anesthesiologists Inc.

CHICAGO, IL – Following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered a judgment requiring Michael Lewis, former president of Acme Orthotics and Prosthetic Laboratories Inc., to restore $128,535.75 in losses owed to the company’s Profit Sharing 401(k) Plan and Trust (“Plan”).

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor announced today its decision for April 1, 2018, as the applicability date for employee benefit plans to comply with a final rule under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) that will give America’s workers new procedural protections when dealing with plan fiduciaries and insurance providers who deny their claims for disability benefits.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to expand the opportunity to offer employment-based health insurance to small businesses through Small Business Health Plans, also known as Association Health Plans.

CONCORD, NH – A New Hampshire man has pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of obstruction of justice in connection with a U.S. Department of Labor wage and hour investigation and litigation. It is believed to be the first federal criminal prosecution arising from a Department wage and hour investigation in New Hampshire.

BIRMINGHAM, AL – The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division, has sentenced a former fund manager in Birmingham to make restitution in the amount of $45,896 and serve five years of probation, including six months of home confinement, for violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. In addition, she has been barred from acting as a fiduciary for five years.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor has announced an 18-month extension from Jan. 1, 2018, to July 1, 2019, of the special Transition Period for the Fiduciary Rule’s Best Interest Contract Exemption and the Principal Transactions Exemption, and of the applicability of certain amendments to Prohibited Transaction Exemption 84-24 (PTEs). This follows public comment on a proposed extension that was published in August.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor today announced a ninety (90) day delay – through April 1, 2018 – of the applicability date for ERISA plans to comply with a final rule amending the claims procedure requirements applicable to disability benefits.

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Labor announced employee benefit plan compliance guidance and relief for victims of Hurricane Maria and the October 2017 California Wildfires.

The Department understands that plan fiduciaries, employers, labor organizations, service providers, and participants and beneficiaries may encounter issues complying with the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) over the next few months as the implications of Hurricane Maria and the California Wildfires unfold.