CHICAGO – Following a U.S. Department of Labor investigation, a federal court has approved an order requiring the president and owner of a Chicago-area real estate company to restore financial losses to participants after he misappropriated funds from the company’s cash balance pension and profit-sharing plans.
The order entered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois requires owner Michael Olszewski – sole trustee and fiduciary of Area Wide Realty Corp.’s Cash Balance Pension Plan and Trust and its Profit-Sharing Plan and Trust – to restore amounts due to both plans with interest. Olszewski will deposit $12,500 into the Profit-Sharing Plan, waive the restoration of losses to his own plan accounts, and reallocate his account balance in the plans to restore participants’ accounts to their Dec. 31, 2018 balances. Olszewski also agreed to terminate the plans and distribute more than $400,000 to participants and beneficiaries within six months of the entry of the order.
The action follows an investigation by the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration and subsequent lawsuit. The department’s lawsuit alleged that in spring 2011, Olszewski transferred all funds from the Cicero-based company’s employee benefit plans to personal annuity policies in his own name with his wife as the beneficiary. However, in 2012 and 2013, he filed annual reports for the employee benefit plans indicating the plans had assets. In spring 2016, Olszewski...
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