A subpoena was issued to Alight Solutions by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) for documents related to a cybersecurity breach that potentially resulted in Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) violations. Alight provides recordkeeping, administrative, and consulting services for over 750 employee benefit plans with more than 20 million plan participants.

The DOL began investigating Alight in 2019 after discovering unauthorized distributions due to security breaches. The DOL stated in its brief to the Seventh Circuit that Alight “failed to disclose those breaches and unauthorized distributions to plan clients for months.” The DOL then began investigating these incidents to determine whether any parties involved in the breaches had violated (or would violate) ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974). During the investigation, the DOL issued a subpoena that Alight argued was overly broad and burdensome and that the DOL did not have the authority to issue.

However, the Seventh Circuit ruled that the DOL has broad power to issue subpoenas like this and to investigate non-fiduciaries, even if such entities only service ERISA plans in an administrative capacity. The court agreed with the DOL, stating that the DOL’s authority under the law depends on the information requested and its relation to an actual or potential ERISA violation. Walsh v. Alight Solutions, LLC, No. 21-3290, 2022 WL 3334450 (7^th Cir. Aug. 12, 2022).

In the opinion, the court...

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