A federal court has ordered a company that administered a multiple employer welfare arrangement and one of its owners to pay at least $1.3 million to restore losses to more than 700 employer health plans after the U.S. Department of Labor found the company violated federal employee benefits law.
On April 28, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division, entered a consent order and judgment resolving a complaint filed by the department in May 2024. The complaint alleged Apex Management Group I Inc. and one of its owners, Jeffrey Bemoras, operated a multiple employer welfare arrangement that provided essential minimum coverage health plans to hundreds of small employers, each of which established a separate self-funded Employee Retirement Income Security Act plan. In total, the MEWA covered more than 11,000 employees and beneficiaries.
In its complaint, the department alleged Apex and Bemoras acted as fiduciaries to each plan, violated their fiduciary duties, and engaged in prohibited transactions by causing the plan assets of some of the plans to be used to pay claims of other plans, comingling assets of unrelated plans, and causing plans to pay undisclosed and excessive compensation to Apex – all in violation of ERISA.
“Employers and employees trusted Apex to manage their health plans by following the law. Apex broke that trust by improperly pooling plan assets and using funds from some plans to pay claims for others,” said Employee Benefits Security Administration Acting Regional Director Kelli Hammerl in Chicago. “The Department of Labor will enforce the law and hold fiduciaries accountable for violations.”
Under the court order, Bemoras and the company must pay $1.3 million to a settlement fund to restore plan losses, pay up to an additional $445,000 based on loss calculations, pay civil penalties, and direct additional funds held by third-party administrators be transferred to the settlement fund.
The court appointed an independent fiduciary to calculate losses and distribute funds to the plans, plan sponsors, and plan participants.
Apex and Bemoras are also barred from serving as fiduciaries or service providers to any ERISA plan unless they disclose all fees they receive and any fees they arrange for third parties. After the department filed its complaint, Apex reviewed and reduced the fees it charges the plans.
“This enforcement action demonstrates that the Employee Benefit Security Administration will continue to protect America’s plan participants and beneficiaries from improper conflicts of interests and fiduciary breaches of loyalty,” said Assistant Secretary for Employee Benefits Security Daniel Aronowitz.
Additionally, Apex must require all third-party administrators responsible for invoicing plan sponsors to disclose each month: the amount of fees paid to Apex, the amount of fees paid to each service provider that Apex has arranged or contracted to receive fees, the total amount of fees paid to all service providers and brokers, all amounts from contributions that were remitted to a claims funding account that month, and the running balance of each plan’s claims funding account.
Fiduciaries and plan administrators can get help complying with the law and correcting violations through EBSA’s correction programs. These include the Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program, which encourages employers and plan officials to voluntarily correct ERISA violations, and the Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program, which helps late filers come into compliance with annual ERISA reporting requirements.
Employers and workers can contact EBSA at askebsa.dol.gov or call 866-444-3272 toll-free for help with private sector job-based retirement and health plans.