House Education and the Workforce Committee Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx R-N.C.. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/AP
House Committee on Education and the Workforce Chair Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-NC, is demanding the Department of Labor’s inspector general investigate whether the Biden administration is abusing its authority, after it was revealed that the DOL shared confidential retirement plan information with a plaintiffs’ attorney.
“The Committee on Education and the Workforce (Committee) has learned that the [DOL] shared confidential information involving at least six employee benefit pension plans with a plaintiffs’ attorney,” read the letter sent on Nov. 21 to Inspector General Larry Turner.
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“DOL’s [Employee Benefits Security Administration] gathered this confidential information during an investigation, and Michael R. Hartman, Counsel for DOL’s New York Regional Solicitor’s Office, shared this information with Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll, PLLC (Cohen Milstein), a law firm known for pursuing class action lawsuits involving benefits plans, to use in a lawsuit against a fiduciary of the plans.”
The lawsuit in which confidential information was shared was Harrison v. Envision Management Holding Inc. Board of Directors et al., filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, in which Envision Management was accused of breaching its fiduciary duties for mismanaging its employee stock ownership plan.
The DOL’s EBSA gathered information about the leak during an investigation and Michael R. Hartman, ERISA counsel for DOL’s New York Regional Solicitor’s Office, shared the information with Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll, “a law firm known for pursuing class action lawsuits involving benefits plans, to use in a lawsuit against a fiduciary of the plans,” according to the letter.
The DOL “appears to be working in concert with plaintiffs’ attorneys … by conducting a fishing expedition under the guise of an EBSA investigation and then supplying confidential information to plaintiffs’ attorneys for use in private litigation against plan fiduciaries …,” continues the letter. “Those who have been targets of DOL investigations and class action lawsuits involving benefits plans have long suspected that DOL has secretly shared information with class action law firms to give them a leg up in federal litigation, although this appears to be the first time such a cozy relationship has come to light.”
Related: DOL backs IBM retirees, urges lower court to reopen firm’s ERISA pension plan lawsuit
“EBSA must immediately take steps to protect the confidentiality of information gathered during investigations and to reassure employee benefits plan fiduciaries that their cooperation during investigations will not lead to coercive actions from plaintiffs’ attorneys,” writes Foxx, who is requesting that the Inspector General immediately “investigate this practice and publish a public report.”
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Lynn Cavanaugh
Lynn Varacalli Cavanaugh is Senior Editor, Retirement at BenefitsPRO. Prior, she was editor-in-chief of the What's New in Benefits & Compensation newsletter. She has worked for major firms in the employee benefits space, Vanguard and Willis Towers Watson, as well as top media companies, including Condé Nast and American Media.
