The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has released the results of its Employee Benefits Security Administration’s (EBSA) enforcement actions during fiscal year (FY) 2023.
The DOL has broad authority to investigate or audit an employee benefit plan’s compliance with ERISA. EBSA handles audits of employee benefit plans for the DOL. To perform these audits, EBSA employs investigators working out of field offices, many of whom are lawyers or certified public accountants or who have advanced degrees in business or finance.
Through its enforcement of ERISA, EBSA oversees approximately 2.8 million health plans, 765,000 pension plans, and 619,000 other welfare benefit plans. According to the audit, these plans cover 153 million workers, retirees and dependents.
In FY 2023, EBSA recovered over 1.4 billion dollars for plans, participants and beneficiaries. Other key EBSA enforcement results include the following:
EBSA closed 731 civil investigations. Of these, 69% resulted in monetary results for plans or other corrective actions.
EBSA referred 50 cases for civil litigation and closed 196 criminal investigations.
EBSA’s criminal investigations led to the indictment of 60 individuals—including plan officials, corporate officers and service providers—for offenses related to employee benefit plans.
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