A federal judge has ordered Mary Clark, president of Columbus, Ohio-based Clark Graphics, to restore more than half a million dollars to the company's two employee retirement plans. Marcia Dowdell, the president of Pension Retirement Planning, who served as administrator for the plans, also was ordered to restore funds.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed suit against the company after the Employee Benefits Security Administration conducted an investigation and found that the company's plans had insufficient oversight and there was mishandling of plan assets resulting in multiple violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

The suit alleged that the company's owners failed in their fiduciary responsibilities as plan trustees by neglecting to monitor the actions of the plans' administrator. They also failed to review and reconcile the plans' trust account statements, review participant distribution calculations and require the administrator to issue participant statements. Dowdell also failed to maintain accurate records for participants in both plans so some participants have not received the correct retirement benefits.