Sports Agency Owner Charged for Allegedly Stealing Retirement Assets

The co-owner of a sports agency has been charged with a civil lawsuit alleging five counts of fiduciary breach including theft of workers’ retirement plan assets.

The co-owner of Professional Sports Planning, Inc. and trustee for the Professional Sports Planning, Inc. defined contribution profit sharing plan, Carl Poston, is alleged to have “directed the withdrawal of plan assets to be used for operating the company,” according to the compliant filed by U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh.

Walsh brought the civil lawsuit before the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, according to the complaint, Walsh v. Poston et al.

“During the period from on or about October 17, 2014, through on or about May 21, 2018, defendants Carl Cardwell Poston III and Professional Sports Planning, Inc., obtained, retained, and used plan assets for non-plan uses, including funding the operation of Professional Sports Planning, Inc,” the complaint stated. 

The Houston-based Professional Sports Planning, which provides representation and negotiation services for professional athletes, did not respond to a request for comment.

The five alleged ERISA violations included:

• Failing to operate the retirement plan solely in the best interests of participants;
• Failing to operate the plan with necessary care, skill, prudence and diligence;
• Engaging in transactions plan fiduciaries knew or should have known were violations of ERISA;
• Dealing with assets of the plan in their own interests or for their own accounts; and
• Engaging in transactions involving the plan on behalf of a party whose interests were adverse to the interests of the trust and the interests of its participants and beneficiaries.

“The fiduciaries’ violations resulted in the following plan losses: (1) $111,414.10 in plan assets that were withdrawn between October 17, 2014, and May 21, 2018, for non-plan purposes,” the complaint stated. “The fiduciaries have restored a portion of these withdrawn assets, and the remaining amount owed to the plan is $76,768.45, and (2) [l]ost opportunity costs that cannot be calculated until the plan assets are restored and distributed to the participants.”

The plaintiff is represented by Amy Hairston, trial attorney-in-charge and the Department of Labor Office of the Solicitor. It is unclear at this time who is representing Poston.