NY Skin Surgery Center to Pay $5 Million to ESOP

The owner of a Manhattan laser surgery center has reached an agreement with the Department of Labor (DOL) to pay $5 million to its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) in order to resolve violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). 

An investigation by the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) found Roy Geronemus, owner of the Laser and Skin Surgery Center of New York, hired his accountant Samuel Ginsberg to serve as the ESOP’s trustee. Ginsberg then approved a transaction in which the ESOP purchased shares of his company stock for $24 million despite a valuation that omitted Geronemus’s actual compensation and corporate debt, in addition to other errors, according to the EBSA investigation.  

The violations led the DOL to file suit against Geronemus and Ginsberg.

“Accurate company valuations are critical when it comes to establishing an employee stock ownership plan,” says EBSA Regional Director Jonathan Kay, in New York.

“This agreement upholds our findings that Geronemus violated his fiduciary duty to the plan and its participants when he caused the Laser and Skin Surgery Center of New York Employee Stock Ownership Plan to overpay for the shares,” says Regional Solicitor Jeffrey S. Rogoff, in New York. “It also serves notice to plan fiduciaries that their sole obligation is to protect the interest of the plan participants.”

The agreement was formalized in a consent order and judgment issued by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Under the terms of the consent order and judgment, Geronemus is required to make a cash payment of $5 million to the ESOP and pay a $500,000 penalty. He will also forgive past-due and future compensation that would otherwise be owed to him. In addition, Geronemus and Ginsberg are enjoined from serving as fiduciaries to any ERISA-covered plan.

Details of the complaint can be found here. The consent order can be found here.