Plan shut down.

The U.S. Department of Labor has obtained a consent judgment shutting down Paramount-based International Union of Public and Industrial Workers Canadian Benefit Fund, which investigators characterized as a "sham" health plan.

The judgment also restores $542,727 to pay pending health claims of more than 2,000 workers and families, removes officials from their positions with the fund and appoints an independent fiduciary to manage the fund's $762,606 in assets, pay health claims and eventually terminate the plan.

Marketed nationwide, the fund covers employees in two affiliated unions, the International Union of Petroleum and Industrial Workers and the International Union of Industrial and Independent Workers. Plan officials must pay a civil monetary penalty and are permanently barred from managing any plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

The judgment entered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta, resolves a 2005 lawsuit that alleged mismanagement of the fund by trustees. The Los Angeles regional office of the department's Employee Benefits Security Administration helped build the case.

Staff reporter Deborah Crowe can be reached at [phone], ext. 232, or at [e-mail].