The Department of Labor was issued an emergency temporary restraining order (TRO) by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against RiversEdge Advanced Retirement Solutions LLC, and owner Paul Palguta.

According to the DOL, RiversEdge is a third-party administrator (TPA) of at least 240 retirement plans.

According to the DOL, RiversEdge Advanced Retirement Solutions LLC and its owner Paul Palguta violated ERISA and embezzled more than $5.5 million in retirement plan assets from 17 retirement plans—by transferring them from retirement plan trusts into their corporate accounts. I will alays that stealing from a retirement plan is dumb, because there will always be a trail.

The DOL also alleges that the defendants tried to conceal their embezzlement by issuing fake account statements to the retirement plans causing them to file false 5500s with the DOL that overstated the amount of assets in the trust accounts.