The U.S. Department of Labor today sued an Iowa
businessman Fred Bovee of Des Moines for failing to forward
employeessalary deductions to the savings incentive match IRA plan of
State Wide Metal Recycling, Inc.
As a result of the defendants failure to
forward monies withheld from workers paychecks from June 6, 1997 to Jan.
22, 1999, the plan allegedly suffered losses of $2,155.76 plus interest.
State Wide established the Savings Incentive Match
Plan for Employees of Small Employers (SIMPLE) in March, 1996. There were five
participants, including Bovee, and assets of $1,804.86 as of Dec. 31, 1998. The
company, in the process of being sold, has been engaged in the reclamation and
sale of scrap metal with Bovee as its president, director and corporate
agent.
The department is seeking to have Bovee repay the
plan all losses, including earnings lost and post judgment interest, attributed
to his fiduciary breaches of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act
(ERISA). The lawsuit is also asking that he be removed from his position with
the plan, permanently barred from serving as a fiduciary to any ERISA plan and
for an independent fiduciary to be appointed to administer and terminate the
plan. The lawsuit further seeks to have Bovees own individual plan
account set off to recoup the losses if he cant otherwise restore the
money.
The complaint is the result of an investigation by
the departments Kansas City Regional Office of the Pension and Welfare
Benefits Administration, which oversees the federal pension law. It was filed
in federal district court in Des Moines.
(Herman v.Fred Bovee and State Wide Metal
Recycling, Inc.) Civil Action No. 4-00-CV-90285 |