Feb 23, 2012
--- The U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) obtained a
summary judgment ordering Compass Capital Partners Ltd. and owner Harris M.
DeWese to restore $661,206 to the defunct West Chester,
Pennsylvania company’s retirement plan. ---
The
judgment resolves a lawsuit filed by the DoL in August 2011 that alleged
violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
The
suit resulted from an investigation by the department’s Employee Benefits
Security Administration (EBSA), which found that DeWese withdrew funds from the
plan eight times from October 2006 to October 2007 and deposited them in his
personal account and a Compass Capital Partners bank account. DeWese then
used the plan funds to pay the company’s operating expenses and also transferred
a portion of them to Tampa, Flordia-based Hillsboro Printing, a company in
which DeWese was a shareholder. Compass Capital Partners ceased
operations, and the plan was unable to pay benefits to retired participants as
a result of DeWese’s actions.
“These
actions show a flagrant breach of fiduciary responsibility,” said Assistant
Secretary of Labor for Employee Benefits Security Phyllis C. Borzi. “We will
continue to hold plan sponsors and other responsible parties accountable when
they fall short of their legal obligation to protect the hard-earned savings of
plan participants.”
Filed
in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the
judgment removes DeWese and Compass as plan fiduciaries and permanently enjoins
them from serving as fiduciaries for any ERISA-covered plan. It also
appoints Metro Benefits Inc. of Pittsburgh as the independent fiduciary
authorized to terminate the plan.
Tara Cantore