A perennial employee fear is that 401k deferrals will fail to be deposited in a timely fashion (if at all), funding ongoing operations, employer theft or a host of other illegal activities instead.
Which, if any, apply to employees of bankrupt coal mine operator Blackjewel LLC has yet to be determined, but WyoFile.com, a Wyoming public interest news site, reports that the company has withheld $1.2 million from employees’ paychecks without depositing the funds in the workers’ retirement accounts.
The company closed two mines in northeast Wyoming’s Powder River Basin on Monday, laying off close to 600 employees, as it struggles to continue as a going concern.
Questions specifically surround CEO Jeffrey Hoops, who must retire as part of a financing deal to secure security and fire suppression at the facilities, but WyoFile writes “worker accounts and bankruptcy filings suggest he left workers behind millions of dollars in promised retirement benefits.”
Employee accounts
Three Blackjewel employees told WyoFile that “deductions have come out of their paychecks to go into 401k retirement accounts, but the money hasn’t been deposited for weeks afterwards. Other employees have made similar allegations both to Wyoming newspapers and to Gov. Mark Gordon and his staff during a Campbell County Commissioners meeting on Monday.”
Filings indicate that the company has not deposited $1.2 million withheld from employees’ paychecks and is also $900,000 behind on its employer match.
“The irregularities raise further questions about [Hoops] and the dire financial straits of his company. As of Wednesday morning, Hoops had yet to speak with Wyoming regulators or the governor after suddenly shuttering the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines on Monday.”
Employees told the website that some Blackjewel workers “had quit the 401k program altogether, rather than see chunks of their paychecks disappear and not enter retirement accounts in a timely manner.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
