Court Orders MN IT Firm to Restore $29K in Retirement Funds

Date of Action: July 19, 2024

Type of Action: Default judgment

Company/Owners: Virtual Matrix Corp.

Suman Thotakura

Virtual Matrix 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan

Resolution: A default judgment entered by the U.S. District Court of Minnesota on July 19, 2024, orders Virtual Matrix Corp. and Suman Thotakura to restore $24,847 in employees’ voluntary salary contributions and $759 in participant loan repayments and lost opportunity costs of $3,955 to the Virtual Matrix 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan.

The judgment also permanently bans Virtual Matrix Corp. and Thotakura from serving or acting as fiduciaries to any ERISA-covered employee benefit plan and removing them from any positions they now hold as fiduciaries of the plan. Further, the judgment allows the plan to set off $29,562 of Thotakura’s individual account to restore the losses to the plan resulting from his fiduciary breaches.

The court appointed AMI Benefit Plan Administrators Inc. as an independent fiduciary to terminate the plan and issue distributions to eligible participants.

Background: The Secretary of Labor filed a lawsuit on Aug. 30, 2023, after the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration found the Edina, Minnesota, technology consulting company and Thotakura failed to remit the voluntary salary contributions and participant loan repayments to the Virtual Matrix 401(k) Profit Sharing Plan from April 30, 2021 to June 30, 2022, in violation of federal law.

Public Release.