Members of the Screen Actors Guild are being reassured that their benefits packages are safe and secure amid allegations that the pension plan’s CEO Bruce Dow covered up an embezzlement scheme and used the funds for personal expenses.
The charges first bubbled up in Department of Labor complaint submitted last September by ousted plan executive Craig Simmons, but gained traction after an online petition demanding an “independent” investigation into the charges garnered over 560 signatures in recent weeks.
In response, the board of trustees of the Screen Actors Guild Producers Pension and Health Plans (SAG-PPHP) has written a letter to members telling them that a review of the charges by an outside counsel found that the bulk of the allegations against Dow were false.
“Based on the results of the investigation, we can assure you that the fiscal integrity of the SAG-PPHP remains sound and your benefits are secure,” the letter reads. “In plain English, your Pension Plan is safe; your Health Plan is safe.”
Also read: SAG Members Push for Independent Investigation Into Charges of Pension-Plan Embezzlement
The board does acknowledge that one charge of financial impropriety does carry weight. An investigation found that a former employee misappropriated some $2 million of funds. However, the trustees write that the plans’ administrators investigated the matter immediately.
The letter goes on to say that the matter was “resolved” earlier this year and that nearly all of the money was recovered from the plans’ insurance company.
Simmons, who was fired as SAG-PPHP's executive director of HR, IT and risk management earlier this year, initially claimed that Dow encouraged him to lie to investigators about a $5 to $10 million scheme conducted by a former employee. He charged Dow with overseeing a frat boy culture that encouraged homophobia.
Simmons also accuses Dow of raiding the benefits plan to lavish money on family members and pay for his wife’s breast-enhancement surgery.
“The independent investigator found that most of Mr. Simmons’ allegations are false, including his claims that Mr. Dow is anti-gay, that he caused the Plans to improperly reimburse health expenses for his wife, that he caused Plan employees to work on his home and perform personal chores for him, that he promoted employees who were unqualified, and that he instructed staff to mislead U.S. Department of Labor auditors,” the letter reads.
It is not clear if this will satisfy disgruntled SAG members. The online petition claims that Nancy Solomon, the attorney hired to conduct the investigation, has close ties to SAG’s national executive director, David White and previously worked with him at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers.
The letter from the trustees doesn't mention Solomon or address those charges directly but characterizes the unnamed investigator as a “...highly regarded independent investigator with extensive experience in workplace investigations.”
Simmons apparently declined to discuss his claims with the investigator.
