Former Dealership Owner Must Pay Back $13K In Retirement Contributions

ST. CHARLES, IL — The owner of Nissan of St. Charles has been ordered to repay more than $13,000 to employees' retirement plans.

U.S. District Court for the Northern Illinois District of Illinois Judge Robert W. Gettleman entered a consent order and judgement Monday against Nissan of St. Charles and the company's owner Fred Vargason.

The consent judgment approves a withdrawal from Vargason’s personal account with the company’s Simple IRA plan in the amount of $13,772 to restore the employees’ missing funds, according to a news release. The amount represents $13,071 in contributions not forwarded to the plan and $651 in lost opportunity costs for Nissan of St. Charles employees who made voluntary contributions from their pay from Jan. 1 through Jan. 31, 2019.

The judgment also forbids Vargason and the company from future ERISA violations and bars them from serving as fiduciaries or service providers to any Employee Retirement Income Security Act-covered employee benefit plan in the future. The court appointed AMI Benefit Plan Administrators Inc. as the plan’s independent fiduciary to allocate the restoration to harmed plan participants’ accounts.

Vargason must also pay $2,060 from his fund to pay AMI for their services and a $2,754 penalty as a result of the ERISA violation.

The Secretary of Labor first filed a lawsuit on April 8, 2022, after the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration found the company and Vargason failed to remit employees’ voluntary salary contributions to the company’s Simple IRA Plan.

Employers and workers can reach EBSA toll-free at 866-444-3272 for help with problems related to private sector retirement and health plans