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Release Date: June 26, 2008
Release Number: 08-208-ATL
Contact Name: Michael Wald
Phone Number: 404.562.2076
Atlanta – The U.S. Department of Labor has
sued Professional Employee Leasing Inc. in Dadeville, Alabama, Louie
Sims and Judy Sims to recover more than $200,000 allegedly diverted by
the defendants from the company’s money purchase pension plan in
violation of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
“Theft from employee benefits plans will not be
tolerated,” said Bradford P. Campbell, assistant secretary of the
Labor Department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA).
“Our legal action sends a clear message that plan fiduciaries cannot
divert funds and then hide their illegal actions behind false reporting.”
Professional Employee Leasing Inc. provides
record-keeping services to employers that include the handling of
payrolls and benefit payments. The company offered a defined
contribution pension plan to employees of its client employers. Client
employers were required to contribute 7.5 percent of each employee’s
compensation to the company’s pension plan. Employees were not allowed
to make contributions to the plan.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the
Middle District of Alabama, alleges that Louie Sims, the owner of the
company, and his wife, Judy Sims, received contributions from employers
but failed to hold them for the plan. In addition, the defendants sent
the plan’s third party administrator false documents making it appear
that individual participant accounts had the correct balances. In March
2007, Judy Sims pleaded guilty in federal district court to one count of
making a false statement in a document required by ERISA.
The suit asks the court to order the defendants to
restore all losses to the plan, appoint a successor trustee and
administrator to distribute plan assets, and bar the defendants from
acting in a fiduciary capacity to any employee benefit plan subject to
ERISA.
The case was investigated by EBSA’s Atlanta
Regional Office, which can be reached at 404.302.3900 or toll-free at
866.444.3272 for help with problems relating to private sector
retirement and health plans. In fiscal year 2007, EBSA achieved monetary
results of $1.5 billion related to pension, 401(k), health and other
benefits for millions of American workers and their families.
Chao v. Professional Employee Leasing Inc.
Civil Action Number 3:08-cv-00483-WKW-CSC
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