There is apparently a fine line between stealing and borrowing in the vegetable packing world and the feds say a Miami-Dade company crossed it.
The U.S. Department of Labor is suing Orrin H. Cope Produce Inc. for taking $3.7 million from its employees' pension plan.
The attorney for the company, Bob Friedman, said Monday that the company "borrowed" the money and had worked out a settlement in advance of the filing by the federal government to restore the entire amount taken.
But employees looking to reap what the company sowed over the past few years had been getting the short end of the stick, labor officials claim.
The lawsuit filed in Miami on March 30 accuses the trustees of taking money out of the profit sharing pension plan and using it for the company.
The trustees made four withdrawals from the plan between July 2007 and March 2008 in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
