Court OKs Asset Restoration for Mass. Plan

In the case of Perez v. Goldsmith et al. (Docket Number: 1:13-cv-12761), the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts entered a consent judgment and order after defendants agreed to pay out a total of $90,288.91 to plan participants, including lost opportunity costs. The defendants listed in the lawsuit, filed by the DOL, are Goldsmith, Prest & Ringwall Inc., Calvin R. Goldsmith and Bruce D. Ringwall.

The DOL lawsuit put forth that the defendants sponsored the Goldsmith, Prest & Ringwall Inc. SIMPLE IRA [Individual Retirement Account] Plan to provide retirement benefits for employees and their beneficiaries. In addition, Goldsmith and Ringwall were named as the plan’s fiduciaries, responsible for receiving and collecting all monies due to the plan, properly managing plan assets and collecting employer contributions due to the plan.

An investigation by the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) found that, from 2009 to the present, the defendants failed to remit any and all withheld employee contributions to the plan. This resulted in unremitted contributions totaling $71,855 plus lost opportunity costs. From 2008 to the present, the defendants failed to take appropriate measures to collect any and all employer contributions due to the plan resulting in uncollected employer contributions totaling $26,628 plus lost opportunity costs.

The judgment also requires the defendants to represent that all payments due to the plan are current and up to date, to refrain from future violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), to provide plan participants with a copy of the consent judgment and provide proof of payment and to provide a full accounting of the proceeds to the DOL.

The full text of the consent judgment and order can be found here.