Feb. 18--A health care executive and his mom have been ordered to repay $1.6 million that they looted from a profit-sharing fund meant to benefit nurses and physical therapists who worked for their family-owned business.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve on Tuesday ordered Reginaldo Sulit, 47, and retired Dr. Dalisay Sulit, 77, to pay back the cash they took from 127 workers at Alliance Home Healthcare, a south suburban home-nursing business with offices in Worth and Palos Hills.
Speaking in the lobby of the Magnificent Mile building where he owns a condo, Reginaldo Sulit said Thursday that he and his mother had not personally benefited but had taken the money to keep the company running.
"To help the business, I've taken myself off the payroll," he said. "It's our intention to pay everyone back."
But the U.S. Department of Labor, which brought the case against the Sulits and Alliance in August, said that's no excuse.
"This judgment is a victory for the participants in the company's profit sharing plan," Phyllis Borzi, assistant secretary of labor for employee benefits security, said in a news release. "Too often, we see employee benefit-plan funds used illegally by company owners and management to prop up struggling companies. Employee benefit plans must be managed in the best interest of participants, bottom line."
Alliance established the profit-sharing plan for its employees' retirement in 2000. But starting in 2012, the Sulits started cashing checks to themselves for as much as $225,000 from the plan account, according to court filings.
The Sulits did not attend any court hearing related to the case and neither did any attorney on their behalf or for the firm, prompting the judge to issue a default ruling this week against them. In addition to the $1.6 million that was improperly taken, the Sulits must pay $134,000 in interest, she ruled.
Reginaldo Sulit described the ruling as unfair but declined to say why he had not fought the case in court. Alliance, which has been in business for 21 years, now employs just 20 people, he said.
No nurse ever received any funds from the fund, he added, "because they didn't retire or they weren't vested."
kjanssen@tribpub.com
