A U.S. District Court judge denied Goldman Sachs' motion to dismiss a lawsuit that stipulated a series of ERISA violations ranging from excessive fees to inadequate monitoring of investments in Goldman Sachs' 401(k) plan.
In a July 9 opinion, Judge Edgardo Ramos of the U.S. District Court in New York denied the motions to dismiss the lawsuit, which Goldman Sachs filed in January, claiming the plaintiff's claims were untimely, that he had failed to exhaust them and that he lacked standing in making the claims.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in October by a participant in the Goldman Sachs plan, said plan fiduciaries kept many underperforming proprietary Goldman Sachs mutual funds in the investment lineup until removing them in 2017. The lawsuit alleged the "act of self-preservation" in removing the funds from the lineup "arrived too late," and that an objective fiduciary would have removed them far earlier.
The proprietary mutual funds Goldman Sachs removed in 2017 were the Goldman Sachs Short Duration Government Fund, Goldman Sachs Core Fixed Income Fund, Goldman Sachs Large Cap Value Fund, Goldman Sachs Strategic Income Fund, Goldman Sachs Mid Cap Value Fund, Goldman Sachs High Yield Fund and Goldman Sachs Emerging Markets Equity Fund.
As of Dec. 31, the Goldman Sachs 401(k) Plan had $8.5 billion in assets, according to the company's latest 11-K filing with the SEC.
Patrick Scanlan, a Goldman Sachs spokesman, declined to comment.
