CHICAGO – The U.S. Department of Labor has asked a federal court in Illinois to hold fiduciaries of the United Employee Benefit Fund, along with its counsel, liable for more than $2.8 million in losses after an investigation found they allowed the misappropriation of the fund’s assets. A Chicago-based multiple employer welfare arrangement, UEBF provides life insurance benefits to about 63 nationwide employer-sponsored benefit plans.

Filed Feb. 28, 2022, in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, the department’s complaint alleges the fund’s fiduciaries and its counsel committed multiple violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act from 2015 to 2018. The complaint seeks to recover losses and interest, to bar the fiduciaries and counsel permanently from serving as fiduciaries and service providers to employee benefit plans and appoint an independent fiduciary to take over the administration of the fund, including conducting an accounting of all plan assets and determining whether the fund should be terminated.

“The fiduciaries of the United Employee Benefit Fund and its counsel’s alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act harmed the United Employee Benefit Fund’s financial security impacting the benefits promised to fund participants nationwide,” said Employee Benefits Security Administration Deputy Regional Director Kelli Hammerl in Chicago.

Investigators with the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration in...

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