Retirement plan administrator accused of stealing millions

Following an exhaustive investigation, the Department of Labor has successfully obtained an emergency temporary restraining order against a Pittsburgh-based company that allegedly misappropriated millions of dollars from hundreds of retirement plans it had been entrusted to administer.

The order from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, in response to a legal action the DOL initiated January 26, was issued against RiversEdge Advanced Retirement Solutions and its principal, Paul Palguta.

"RiversEdge is a third-party administrator of at least 240 retirement plans that hold millions of dollars in plan assets and acts as an agent to manage and administer plan assets," the DOL said in a statement. "At least 229 of these retirement plans are covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974."

A detailed investigation by the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the DOL unit in charge of enforcing ERISA provisions, found that between October 2022 and January 2024, RiversEdge and Palguta systematically diverted funds from retirement plan trusts to corporate accounts under their control.

EBSA said they attempted to conceal those transactions – which saw at least $5.5 million in retirement plan assets funneled from 17 retirement plans – by submitting fraudulent account statements to the retirement plans, causing them to file inaccurate financial reports to the DOL that falsely inflated the value of the plan assets.

The TRO imposes several immediate restrictions on RiversEdge and Palguta. Among other sanctions, they are prohibited from any further management of trust assets, barred from serving as fiduciaries or service providers for any ERISA plans, and prevented from accessing funds in their corporate accounts, with the exception of payments approved by the court for independent fiduciary fees.

“The U.S. Department of Labor will take emergency legal action when fiduciaries violate the law by embezzling retirement plan assets,” Samantha Thomas, the DOL's acting regional solicitor, said in the statement. “The department is determined to protect the assets of employee benefit plans and to hold fiduciaries responsible for failing to discharge their legal duties to protect these assets.”

“We will act vigorously to protect plans from a service provider who violated the trust of plan participants by intentionally breaking the law,” echoed EBSA regional director Cristina O’Brien in Philadelphia.

The DOL is pushing for a permanent injunction against RiversEdge and Palguta, as well as an order to restore the embezzled assets to the affected retirement plans.