Federal court orders company and its owner to repay 401(k) plan

The president and owner of an Illinois-based health care company failed to make necessary contributions to the retirement plan.

A federal court in Illinois has found David Rine and Julieta Mitra, president and owner, respectively, of Home Bound Healthcare, in default after they failed to respond to a complaint the Department of Labor filed on March 31 concerning the company’s 401(k) plan. The court ordered Rine, Mitra and the company to repay $85,402 to the company plan.

The filing, on behalf of the Secretary of Labor, followed an investigation by the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration that found that the now-defunct Flossmoor, Illinois-based Home Bound Healthcare, Rine and Mitra failed to remit $59,921 in employees’ voluntary salary deferral contributions and loan repayments to the Home Bound Healthcare 401(k) plan for certain payroll periods between April 1, 2016, and Aug. 16, 2019.

The investigation also found that the 401(k) plan suffered an additional $25,481 in lost opportunity costs, calculated through Aug. 3, 2022.

In addition to repaying the plan, the court ordered that Rine and Mitra be removed as fiduciaries, trustees and administrations of the Home Bound Healthcare 401(k) and that the two be permanently enjoined from violating ERISA and from serving as fiduciaries or service providers to any ERISA benefit plan in the future.

[More: Court orders Maryland company to restore $148,000 to 401(k) plan]