WASHINGTON, D.C. — Enforcement actions by the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recovered more than $2.4 billion in direct payments to plans, participants and beneficiaries in Fiscal Year 2021, the DOL announced on Nov.23.
The results included plan assets restored, benefits paid to participants, disgorgement of profits, reversal of prohibited transactions that benefit the plan or participants and voluntary fiduciary corrections, as well as amounts recovered through the abandoned plan program and informal complaint resolution.
The agency also achieved significant protections, administrative reforms, and other corrections totaling over $3 billion, officials reported. These corrections involved technical prohibited transactions and other administrative reforms with no new monetary benefit to plans.
EBSA, through its enforcement of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the private employee benefit plan system in the United States.
In FY 2021 EBSA closed 1,072 civil investigations, with 741 of those probes resulting in monetary results for plans or other corrective actions. The investigations led to 16,024 terminated vested participants in defined benefit plans collecting benefits of $1.548 billion owed to them.
EBSA opened 188 criminal investigations and closed 208 criminal investigations in FY 2021, ledgers reflect. Of the 188 criminal cases, 118 of them involved health benefit plans.
The criminal investigations, including those conducted in coordination with other law enforcement agencies, led to indictments of 72 individuals. Thirty-nine of those indictments related to health benefit plans and 16 stemmed from EBSA’s Contributory Plans Criminal Project (CPCP), which focuses on plans that are funded, in whole or in part, through employee contributions withheld from wages.
The individuals charged included plan officials, corporate officers, and plan service providers. EBSA also obtained 38 guilty pleas or convictions, and nearly $4 million in monetary recoveries for the benefit of plans and participants.
EBSA’s benefits advisers closed more than 175,000 inquiries, many of which came through its toll-free number, 1-866-444-EBSA (3272), or via the EBSA website. These inquiries recovered $499.5 million in benefits on behalf of workers and their families through informal resolution of individual complaints.
EBSA’s oversight authority extends to nearly 734,000 retirement plans, two million health plans, and 662,000 other welfare benefit plans, such as plans providing life or disability insurance. These ERISA covered plans cover about 158 million workers and their dependents with more than $12.9 trillion in plan assets.