Chalk another one up for the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). It's won another judgment, this time on behalf of participants in the Alliance Home Healthcare Inc. Profit Sharing Plan.
Back in August, DOL filed suit after an Employee Benefits Security Administration investigation in Chicago found that Palos Hills, Ill.-based Alliance Home Healthcare Inc.; Dalisay Sulit, its president; and Reginaldo Sulit, its secretary/treasurer improperly transferred and distributed more than $1.6 million from the profit sharing plan to themselves, the company, and others.
The lawsuit alleged that those plan withdrawals were not in the best interests of the plan's participants and beneficiaries, and the federal judge agreed, ordering the home healthcare provider and the trustees to repay a total of $1,736,339 to the plan.
That includes not only the $1,601,908 in withdrawn plan assets that were used for non-plan purposes, including directly benefiting the company, but also lost opportunity costs of $134,431.
The judge also removed the defendants from their positions as fiduciaries to the plan and permanently enjoined them from serving as fiduciaries or service providers to any plan covered by ERISA.
The court appointed Lefoldt & Co. P.A. of Ridgeland, Mississippi, as an independent fiduciary, compensated at the defendants' expense, to distribute the plan's assets to participants and beneficiaries and to terminate the plan.
Alliance Home Healthcare established the plan on January 1, 2000, to provide retirement benefits to eligible employees.
As of December 31, 2006—the last year an annual report was filed—the plan had 127 participants and $1.6 million in assets. Alliance Home Healthcare provided healthcare services to patients in their homes.
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