A former Wayne company is being sued by the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly not paying proper benefits before closing its doors.
Thomas E. Perez, secretary of labor for the U.S. Department of Labor, filed a suit against Encorium Group Inc. on Sept. 29 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
According to the complaint, Encorium Group Inc. was supposed to pay employees a retirement fund, but went out of business before this could happen.
The complaint states that Encorium contracted with Automatic Data Processing Inc. to create a plan for retirement benefits. Encorium later told ADP that it wanted to terminate the plan in September 2009, effective the following month. ADP responded that more procedures were necessary to terminate the plan but Encorium did not comply, so the plan was not terminated and assets were not distributed. Encorium sold its United States-based assets to Pierrel Research in October 2009, and subsidiary Encorium Oy continued operations but was not responsible for the plan, the complaint states.
Encorium Oy filed for bankruptcy on May 2012 before the termination of the plan was completed, according to the complaint. As of May 12, assets totaling $966,752.08 belonging to 33 participants were part of the plan.
Perez wants a judgment to remove Encorium from a position to distribute the funds from the plan and appoint an independent fiduciary to be responsible for the allocation of funds from the plan. Perez is represented by M. Patricia Smith, Oscar L. Hampton III and John M. Strawn of the U.S. Department of Labor.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Case 2:15-cv-05365-TJS