Lockheed Martin has agreed to settle an eight-year-old class action lawsuit over 401K funds on the eve of a trial.
The lawsuit alleged losses of about $1.3 billion for a class of around 120,000 employees, according to court documents. Lockheed employees Anthony Abbott and Eric Fankhauser, of Illinois, were the representative plaintiffs in the suit, represented by St. Louis attorneys at Schlichter, Bogard and Denton.
A bench trial had been scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Dec. 16 before U.S. District Judge Michael J. Reagan in East St. Louis.
On that morning, a note was filed on the case docket saying, “The parties having announced they have reached a provisional settlement, today's Bench Trial is CANCELLED.”
The lawsuit alleged that Lockheed mismanaged the retirement plans, paying excessive administrative fees and “used a higher-cost version of the American Century Growth Fund than was available.” It also alleged that plan administrators failed to recover indirect compensation that the plan bookeepers received.
The company has been fighting the lawsuit since it was filed in 2006 and denied any breach of its fiduciary duty. The latest time period outlined in allegations was 2008, according to a judge's order that summarized the facts of the case.
Lockheed’s website says it currently employs about 113,000 employees worldwide. The company has about 11,000 employees in Florida, including more than 6,000 in the Orlando metropolitan area. The company’s Missiles and Fire Control facility in South Orlando alone employs thousands.
A spokeswoman for Lockheed confirmed that the company reached an agreement to settle, but details of the settlement were still being finalized.
Source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com
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