Benefit Fund’s Lawyer Helped Ex-Trustee Siphon Money, Suit Says

An Illinois lawyer dipped into the assets of client United Employee Benefit Fund to help an ex-trustee stay in his home, earn a $300,000 salary, and improperly divert other amounts, a newly hired United administrator alleges.

Attorney L. Steven Platt violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act and committed professional negligence, as did Scott Mayer, a Colorado attorney who aided him, the administrator alleges in a complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Platt consequently owes the fund about $3.4 million, the complaint says.

United collects a portion of union employees’ wages to ...