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Release Date: July 24, 2008
Release Number: 08-961-SAN
Contact Name: Deanne Amaden
Phone Number: 415.625.2630
San Francisco – The U.S. Department of Labor
has obtained a consent judgment in which Phoenix-based Hyacinth Corp.
and its president agreed to restore $125,000 owed to participants of the
corporation’s money purchase plan.
The judgment resolves a Labor Department lawsuit
against Hyacinth Corp. and Richard Ashburn of Malibu, California, for
allegedly violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
The suit alleged that, beginning in July 1999, Ashburn – who served as
the company’s president, director and sole shareholder – diverted
assets from the money purchase pension plan and used the assets for
personal gain, including the purchase of personal items and to benefit
several unrelated business interests.
Besides the restitution, the judgment removes Ashburn
as a plan fiduciary, permanently bars him from service to plans governed
by ERISA, and appoints an independent fiduciary to administer the
company’s money purchase and defined benefit plans. The court action
restores $125,000 in losses, including lost earnings, to participants of
the money purchase plan. The action also clears the way for the
independent fiduciary to release the plans’ assets to the other
participants or their beneficiaries.
Hyacinth Corp. provided asset searches and
investigative consulting services. The company is no longer in
operation.
“The Labor Department is committed to protecting
America’s workers by enforcing federal benefits law,” said Bradford
P. Campbell, assistant secretary of labor for the department’s
Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). “Because of our
efforts, Hyacinth’s workers will receive their hard-earned retirement
benefits.”
The judgment, entered in the U.S. District Court for
the Central District of California in Los Angeles, resulted from an
investigation conducted by EBSA’s Los Angeles Regional Office.
Employers and workers with questions or concerns regarding their private
sector pension and health plans can contact the regional office at
626.229.1000 or toll-free at 866.444.3272. Information is also available
on the agency’s Web site at www.dol.gov/ebsa. In fiscal year 2007,
EBSA achieved monetary results of $1.5 billion related to 401(k), health
and other benefits for millions of American workers and their families.
Chao v. Richard Ashburn
Civil Action Number: CV 08-CV-04215-FMC-FFM
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