Jan 9, 2022 | Overtime & Wages
U.S. Department of Labor Recovers More Than $9.3 Million For Minnesota Employee Stock Ownership Plan After Investigation Finds Plan Overpaid For Shares – Order Protects Retirement Fund Of Kurt Manufacturing Company ESOP Eligible Employees
The U.S. Department of Labor has recovered more than $9.3 million for participants of a Minneapolis manufacturing company’s employee stock ownership plan (“ESOP”), after the fund overpaid for company stock in 2011, under the terms of a consent judgment entered in a federal court.
Entered in the U.S. District Court for Minnesota, the judgment ordered the ESOP’s previous trustee – Reliance Trust Company (“Reliance Trust”) – to restore $8,409,090 to the plan to resolve a lawsuit filed by the department. The court also ordered Reliance Trust to pay an $840,909 penalty for violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
The action follows an investigation by the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration and subsequent lawsuit alleging Reliance Trust caused the ESOP to overpay when it purchased the remaining shares of Kurt Manufacturing Company Inc. stock for $39 million in October 2011.
Kurt Manufacturing Company board members and fiduciaries of the company’s ESOP – Steven R. Carlsen, Paul A. Lillyblad and Kelli Watson – will restore $984,042 to the plan. The lawsuit alleged that, as the ESOP’s fiduciaries, the board members failed to monitor Reliance Trust’s determination of the stock’s value and allowed the company to purchase it for more than its true value. The court also ordered the directors to pay a $215,957 penalty for violating the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
In total, the department recovered $9,393,132 for the participants in the Kurt Manufacturing Company Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
The three Kurt Manufacturing Company board members also agreed to not participate in Kurt’s stock appreciation rights plan; forego their right as of July 1, 2021 to any future contributions from Kurt to the supplemental executive retirement plan and rescind agreements that provided termination severance payments of their contract salaries for two years. The court barred Lillyblad and Watson from serving as fiduciaries of the ESOP in the future and barred Carlsen from serving as a fiduciary to any ERISA-covered plans.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor
Employees who believe their 401(k), employee stock option or other workplace retirement plan pension investments have suffered financial losses due to the breach of fiduciary duties by retirement plan administrators and the companies they represent are encouraged to complete the form on the right or contact Kehoe Law Firm, P.C., [email protected], for a free, no-obligation evaluation of potential legal claims.
Jan 9, 2022 | Data Breach
On November 9, 2021, the Medical Review Institute of America (“MRIoA”) discovered that it was the victim of a sophisticated cyber incident that resulted in unauthorized access to its network.
MRIoA has sent Notice of Data Breach letters on behalf of MRIoA customers which provided MRIoA information to facilitate a clinical peer review of a requested or received health care service.
Protected health information was, according to MRIoA, included in the incident. To date, however, MRIoA does not have “evidence indicating misuse of any of your information.”
According to MRIoA, “[t]he types of protected health information potentially involved (only if this information was provided to MRIoA by the organization named [in the data breach notification letter]) . . . demographic information (i.e., first and last name, gender, home address, phone number, email address, date of birth, and social security number); clinical information (i.e., medical history/diagnosis/ treatment, dates of service, lab test results, prescription information, provider name, medical account number, or anything similar in your medical file and/or record); and financial information (i.e., health insurance policy and group plan number, group plan provider, claim information). [Emphasis added.]
The following are some of MRIoA’s customers on whose behalf MRIoA submitted notification of the data breach:
Albertsons Companies • AllWays Health Partners • Ambetter from Home State Health • Ambetter From Superior Health Plan • Ambetter of North Carolina • Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island • Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota • Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois • Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey • Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas • Cambia Health Solutions • Capital Blue Cross • Cary Medical Center • Florida Blue • General Dynamics • Genex Services, LLC • Government Employees Health Association, Inc. • Health New England • Horizon • Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey • Magellan Rx Medicare Basic PDP • Maine General Health• National Elevator Industry Health Benefit Plan • North America Administrators • OptumRx • State of Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services, Office of Employee Health and Wellness • Sullivan Tire • The Associates’ Health and Welfare Plan • Twin Rivers Paper Company • University of Arkansas Medical Benefit Plan • WellCare
Please click Notice of Data Breach for more details about the MRIoA data breach.
Source: Office of The Maine Attorney General.
Have You Been Impacted by A Data Breach?
If so, please complete the form on the right or contact Kehoe Law Firm, P.C., [email protected], for a free, no-obligation evaluation of potential legal claims.
Jan 7, 2022 | Filed Securities Cases
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is investigating whether Talis Biomedical Corporation (“Talis” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: TLIS) violated federal securities laws.
TLIS INVESTORS WHO ACQUIRED THEIR SECURITIES PURSUANT AND/OR TRACEABLE TO THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT AND PROSPECTUS ISSUED IN CONNECTION WITH THE COMPANY’S FEBRUARY 2021 INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING (“IPO”) ARE ENCOURAGED TO DISCUSS JOINING THE CLASS ACTION BY CLICKING “JOIN THE CLASS ACTION” OR “SECURITIES CLASS ACTION QUESTIONNAIRE.”
On January 7, 2022, a class action lawsuit was filed in United States District Court, Northern District of California, on behalf of persons and entities that purchased, or otherwise acquired, Talis common stock pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and prospectus (collectively, the “Registration Statement”) issued in connection with the Company’s February 2021 IPO.
The Registration Statement, according to the complaint, was materially false and misleading and omitted to state (1) that the comparator assay in the primary study lacked sufficient sensitivity to support Talis’s EUA application for Talis One COVID-19 test; (2) as a result, Talis was reasonably likely to experience delays in obtaining regulatory approval for the Talis One COVID-19 test; (3) as a result, the Company’s commercialization timeline would be significantly delayed; and (4) as a result of the foregoing, the Talis Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects, were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
Jan 7, 2022 | Shareholder Investigations
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is investigating whether FirstCash, Inc. (“FirstCash” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: FCFS) violated federal securities laws or engaged in other unlawful business practices.
On November 12, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas against FirstCash and Cash America West, Inc.
FirstCash owns and operates over 1,000 retail pawnshops in the United States, offering pawn loans through its wholly-owned corporate subsidiaries, including Cash America West. Cash America West operates pawn stores in Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Washington. The CFPB alleged that FirstCash and Cash America West made pawn loans to active-duty service members and their dependents that violated the Military Lending Act (“MLA”).
The MLA, according to the CFPB, puts in place protections in connection with extensions of consumer credit for active-duty service members and their dependents, who are defined as “covered borrowers.” These protections include a maximum allowable annual percentage rate of 36%, known as a Military Annual Percentage Rate (“MAPR”), a prohibition against required arbitration, and certain mandatory loan disclosures.
The CFPB alleged that between June 2017 and May 2021, FirstCash and Cash America West made over 3,600 pawn loans out of four of its stores to more than 1,000 covered borrowers that violated prohibitions of the MLA by imposing a MAPR greater than the MLA’s 36% cap; using loan agreements requiring arbitration in the case of a dispute; and without making required loan disclosures. The CFPB further alleged that since October 3, 2016, FirstCash has, together with Cash America West and other wholly-owned subsidiaries, made additional pawn loans in violation of the MLA from stores in these and other states.
In 2013, the CFPB ordered Cash America International, Inc. to halt its misconduct against military families, prohibiting Cash America and its successors from violating the MLA. FirstCash is a successor to Cash America and, according to the CFPB, therefore subject to the 2013 order. The CFPB alleged that FirstCash’s violations of the MLA violated the prohibitions of the Bureau’s 2013 order and, consequently, the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010. The CFPB’s complaint seeks redress for consumers, injunctive relief, and a civil money penalty.
On this news, shares of FirstCash stock fell 9% during intraday trading on November 12, 2021.
Jan 7, 2022 | Shareholder Investigations
Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is investigating whether Honeywell International Inc. (“Honeywell” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: HON) violated federal securities laws or engaged in other unlawful business practices.
October 22, 2021, Honeywell reported that it
. . . continue[s] to cooperate with investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Brazilian authorities relating to [the Company’s] use of third parties who previously worked for [Honeywell’s] UOP business in Brazil in relation to Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (Petrobras) in connection with a project awarded in 2010. The investigations focus on compliance with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar Brazilian laws (the UOP Matters), and involve, among other things, document production and interviews with former and current management and employees. The DOJ and the SEC are also examining a matter involving a foreign subsidiary’s prior contract with Unaoil S.A.M. in Algeria executed in 2011. [Honeywell continues] to be engaged in discussions with the authorities with respect to a potential comprehensive resolution of these matters.
As the discussions are both ongoing and at different stages with regards to each respective authority, there can be no assurance as to whether [Honeywell] will reach a resolution with such authorities or as to the potential timing, terms, or collateral consequences of any such resolution. As a result, [Honeywell] cannot predict the ultimate outcome of these UOP Matters or the potential impact on the Company. Based on available information to date, [Honeywell] estimate[s] that a potential comprehensive resolution of these UOP Matters would result in a probable loss of at least $160 million, and [Honeywell has] recorded a charge in this amount in [the Company’s] Consolidated Statement of Operations, and have accrued a corresponding liability on the Consolidated Balance Sheet. [Emphasis added.]
On this news, shares of Honeywell stock dropped $7.12 per share, closing at $217.40 per share.
