FL Business Owner Siphons Nearly $4M from Benefit Plans

The St. Petersburg Times reports that Floyd Seibert of Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, and Bandera, Texas has agreed to plead guilty to one count of embezzlement. Siebert could be sentenced with up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.

Between April of 1999 and October of 2001, Seibert transferred funds from the pension and medical plans of Central Home Care Services, Inc. to Health Care International Holdings in exchange for bonds, according to the plea agreement, the news report said. Health Care International Holdings, however, was a shell company with only $1,000 in assets.

Seibert created a fictitious person as head of the shell holdings company, based in the British Virgin Islands. He used a sibling’s address and his deceased father’s Social Security number for the fictitious person.

After transferring money to the shell corporation, Seibert would move it back to other companies he owned.

“Seibert stole millions of dollars in pension and health assets, jeopardizing the benefits of the company’s workers and their families,” said Ann Combs, assistant secretary of labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration, according to the news report. “Today’s criminal action sends a clear message that theft of employee benefit plan assets is a serious crime that will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”