Judge orders Minnesota-based Copy Cat Business Systems and former owners to repay more than $13,000 to company’s SIMPLE IRA plan
A federal district court in Minneapolis has granted the U.S. Department of Labor’s motion for summary judgment requiring a business and its former owners to repay $13,218.76 in employee contributions and lost interest owed to the company’s savings incentive match plan for employees individual retirement account (SIMPLE IRA). Allegedly, the defendants failed to forward contributions to the plan and used plan assets to pay the company’s general operating expenses. The court rejected one of the defendant‘s defense that he was not named as a fiduciary to the plan. The court cited case law that imposes “functional” fiduciary liability on individuals who “are not named as fiduciaries but nonetheless exercise actual control over plan assets.”
