Administration June 26, 2008

Law Firm Continues Probes of Fiduciary Breaches

June 26, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The law firm of Stember Feinstein Doyle & Payne, LLC announced it is investigating conduct causing losses to the Fifth Third Bancorp Master Profit Sharing Plan, the company's 401(k) plan, which may have violated the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).
Reported by

The firm is investigating whether certain fiduciaries of the plan knew or should have known that Fifth Third was not properly and timely disclosing its loan losses, which has caused losses to the company’s common stock.

Specifically, the announcement said, Stember Feinstein is investigating whether Fifth Third breached its fiduciary obligations under ERISA by continuing to offer Fifth Third common stock as an investment option for participant contributions when it was imprudent to do so and by failing to take action to sell Fifth Third stock or otherwise protect the Plans’ assets in light of the companies’ business strategies and deteriorating stock value.

In March, the firm announced an investigation into possible fiduciary breaches to the Bear Stearns Companies Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan, Profit Sharing Plan, and Deferred Compensation Plan (See Bear’s Ills Draw Company Stock “Investigation” ). Since then, the law firm has announced similar investigations into plans sponsored by Wachovia (See Law Firm Announces Investigation of Wachovia 401(k) Plan ) and Marshall & Ilsley (See Law Firm Investigates Possible M&I Fiduciary Breach to Retirement Plan ).

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