Guild Concepts Ltd., White Plains, N.Y., and its president, Victor Ayala, must pay $1.5 million into the company’s pension plan in a settlement of a lawsuit that charged the company with violations of ERISA provisions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The lawsuit filed by the Labor Department alleged that the company’s controller, Philip Liu, failed to put more than $200,000 in employee contributions into the plan and transferred $996,000 of plan assets into the company’s general account. The suit alleges that Mr. Ayala did not monitor or prevent Mr. Liu’s actions. Mr. Liu pleaded guilty to embezzlement and is serving a 57-month prison sentence. The asset size of the plan could not be immediately learned.
“He’s serving five years, and personally, I don’t think that’s enough time,” Mr. Ayala said of Mr. Liu. “It’s been a tragedy for us.”
