A financial planner agreed to pay $20 million to 17 retirement plans it manages to resolve a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Labor accusing it of improperly shuffling money between accounts and embezzling at least $5 million in plan assets, a filing in Pennsylvania federal court said.
In a motion filed Monday, the DOL asked the court to greenlight the settlement it reached with RiversEdge Advanced Retirement Solutions LLC and its owner, Paul Palguta, to end its Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit. The DOL said RiversEdge, which acts as a third-party administrator of about 240 retirement plans, moved at least $5.5 million in retirement plan assets from 17 plans by transferring funds from retirement plan trusts into its own corporate accounts.
Financial Co $20M Resolve : Settlement Details and Restrictions
As part of the agreement, RiversEdge will shell out about $20.4 million to distribute among the impacted plans. Additionally, the company and Palguta are barred from managing retirement plans in the future.
