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San Francisco - Charles V. Mugrdechian, Jr., pled guilty January 25, 1999, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, Fresno, to three counts of embezzlement from the Mid-Valley Employers Trust Group Insurance Trust (also known as Key Advantage Trust), a trust that was set up to provide medical insurance to the employee welfare benefit plans of small employers, the U.S. Department of Labor reported today.

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The U.S. Department of Labor today issued proposed regulations addressing electronic communications of certain information by employee benefit plans and minimum standards for maintenance and retention of employee benefit records in electronic form.

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The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against the American Technical Institute of Memphis, Tenn. alleging that the institute failed to timely transmit employee and employer contributions owed to the institute’s money purchase pension plan.

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Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman today announced the appointment of five new members to the Advisory Council on Employee Welfare and Pension Benefit Plans who will represent various sectors of the employee benefits field.

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The director of the health and welfare fund of the International Leather Goods, Plastics, Novelty and Service Workers’ Union in St. Louis, Mo., was indicted on three counts of embezzling approximately $4,500 from the fund.

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The U.S. Department of Labor today announced its intention to hold a public hearing Feb.17 and 18 and, if necessary Feb. 19, 1999, on a proposed rule governing employee benefit claims procedures.

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The corporate trustee of a 401(k) and profit sharing plan in Madison, Wis., was ordered to restore more than $50,000 to the plan for making imprudent investments on participants’ behalf and for authorizing the plan to engage in conflict-of-interest transactions in violation of the federal pension law.

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(Also issued from New York as NY 232 on Dec. 28, with the following headline -Federal Court Names Independent Fiduciary to Take Over Elmont, New York-Based Health Insurance Plan — Affiliated with Firm Based in Great Neck, Plan Owes $25 Million in Claims in 32 States)

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In an opinion handed down in the federal district court in Orlando, a long-running lawsuit of the U.S. Department of Labor against the Orlando-based Reinecke Agency, doing business as Dealers Association Plan (DAP), is essentially concluded.

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A federal court ordered a Norcross, Ga. couple to pay $66,472 over four years to a pension plan sponsored by the Harris Engineering firm as restitution for using the plan’s assets to make a series of imprudent loans to friends and associates.

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A Bucks County, Penn. doctor and his wife pleaded guilty of conspiring to unlawfully use of employee benefit funds and to money laundering. Their pleas were entered Dec. 14 before Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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The former owner of an Overland Park, Kan. company pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with embezzling assets from his company’s 401(k) plan. According to the guilty plea filed Dec.11, Allen Sander, acting as sole trustee of the Shamrock Services Company Employees’ Saving Plan, a 401(k) defined contribution plan, allegedly embezzled plan assets, including employee contributions between July 1991 and January 1996. The plan covered 15 employees.

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For more information call: (202) 219-8921

The Department of Labor has obtained a temporary restraining order freezing the assets of the trustees of the International Workers' Guild health plan, two affiliated organizations and their principals for mismanaging the assets of the health plan covering participants in 21 states.

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The U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit alleging that a St. Paul corporation inappropriately valued its own common stock held as an investment by one of its two corporate pension plans at book rather than fair market value.

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The U.S. Department of Labor's Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration took a major step today to address concerns of the employee benefit industry about fiduciary liability and the Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problem. To help the benefit community understand these issues, the agency is releasing sample questions used by the agency's investigators to evaluate Y2K compliance in the course of civil investigations of benefit plans across the United States.

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Trustees to employee benefit plans of Local 705 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Chicago have agreed to restore $20 million owed to the local union’s pension plan by an affiliated welfare plan under a consent order and judgment obtained by the U. S. Department of Labor.

The restitution returns $16,511,985 to the pension plan which the trustees improperly transferred to the welfare benefit plan, plus interest.

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The owner of a St. Joseph, Mo. printing company and his manager have been sued by the U.S. Department of Labor for failing to forward $6,024 in contributions deducted from employee paychecks to the company’s 401(k) defined contribution plan.

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The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed amendments to its annual reporting regulations under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) to conform the regulations to the new streamlined Form 5500, schedules and instructions. The new Form 5500 will be implemented for employee benefit plans starting with 1999 plan year filings.

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The trustee of a profit sharing plan covering the employees of General Steel Fabricators, Inc. in Latham, New York, agreed to appoint a successor trustee to manage the plan under the terms of a consent order and judgment obtained by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The trustee has already restored $42,521.20 to the plan, which will be credited to the accounts of eligible participants.

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The San Francisco investment firm of McMorgan and Co. has paid more than $13.7 million, including interest, to 10 pension plans as part of a negotiated settlement, the U.S. Department of Labor announced today.