The Department of Labor has recovered $490,594 in defined benefit plan assets from Madison Heights, Mich.-based manufacturer Fourslides Inc., one of two subsidiaries of Revstone Industries LLC.
The order from U.S. District Court Judge Karen Caldwell in Lexington, Ky., includes consent judgments against former trustees Robert LaCourciere and Pamela Babbish, DOL officials announced Wednesday.
Ms. Babbish, a former bookkeeper, and Mr. LaCourciere, a former manager, neither admitted nor denied the allegations. The order bars them from serving as fiduciaries to any employee benefit plans. Ms. Babbish’s lawyer, Jeffrey Heldt of Kotz Sangster Wysocki, said his client left Fourslides in February 2009. Mr. LaCourciere’s attorney did not return calls by press time.
While the court order notes that the two trustees were connected to a small portion of the amount recovered, the money was being put back into the pension fund because the source of the payment, Hofmeister Entities, was involved in court actions that could subject the funds to clawback.
Last May, DOL officials filed lawsuits in the Lexington court alleging fiduciary breaches in the defined benefit plans of Fourslides and Fairfield, Iowa-based foundry Fairfield Castings LLC, seeking to have $4.9 million restored to the plans, including $500,000 for the Fourslides plan.
The Fairfield Casting and Fourslides lawsuits allege that plan trustees engaged in a series of prohibited transactions, including improper use of funds for real estate purchases, loans to interested parties and excessive fees paid to service providers. The suits are related to lawsuits filed in August 2012 against Metavation LLC, a Revstone subsidiary and a Southfield, Mich., vehicle parts manufacturer, that are seeking recovery of $34 million in plan assets to two Metavation plans, Hillsdale Salaried Pension Plan and Hillsdale Hourly Pension Plan, in Lexington, Ky. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. in March 2013 assumed responsibility for both plans.
