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The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has ordered Bicallis LLC and its owner, Bryan Hill, to restore missing contributions to the Bicallis LLC 401(k) Plan, the Department of Labor announced.
The court order—a consent judgment of forfeiture—followed investigation by the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, which found the company and Hill had violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Investigators determined that company matching and safe harbor contributions were owed but not made to the plan from October 2017 through December 2019.
The court ordered Hill to “irrevocably forfeit” his share of $388,458, currently held in a trust, and directed the trustee to distribute the assets to an independent fiduciary to satisfy Hill’s obligations for damages.
“The forfeiture of Bryan Hill’s shares is a substantial step towards enforcing the consent judgment in this matter,” said Philadelphia Acting Regional Solicitor of Labor Samantha Thomas in a statement. “Fiduciaries who violate their duties under federal law cannot escape the consequences of their actions.”
The court in 2022 appointed AMI Benefit Plan Administrators Inc. to serve as the independent fiduciary.
The Bicallis LLC 401(k) plan held $342,582 in retirement assets for 25 participants, as of its last DOL Form 5500 filing, in 2018. The company ceased operations in 2022.
In May 2022, the DOL obtained a court judgment, requiring the company and Hill to pay $151,942, which represented missing contributions and interest to the 401(k) plan and the costs to appoint an independent fiduciary, by December 2022.
The defendants defaulted on the judgment, and the DOL filed a motion to hold Hill and the company in contempt, which the court granted in June 2023. The contempt order directed the defendants to pay fines of $100 per day until the amounts owed were paid in full. In September 2023, the department filed a request to hold a second civil contempt hearing and for enhanced civil contempt penalties. To avoid this hearing, the defendants agreed to a consent order of forfeiture for $388,458 in assets.
“To date, neither the company nor Hill have paid the money owed in full” or distributed funds to the plan’s court-appointed independent fiduciary, according to the DOL announcement.
The lawsuit is Walsh v. Bicallis LLC et al.
Attorney Alejandro Herrera represented the DOL in the case. Hill did not respond to a request for comment.
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