Former Portage businesssman ordered to pay more than $18,000
BY Teresa Auch Schultz tauch@post-trib.com July 30, 2012 4:48PM
Updated: July 30, 2012 11:36PM
A former Portage business owner must pay more than $18,000 to his employees’ retirement funds after he never responded to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Labor.
U.S. District Judge Robert Miller Jr. approved the damages Wednesday after attorneys with the U.S. Department of Labor asked that Michael D. Roetker, who owned Edge Office Solutions Inc., also be removed from overseeing his former employees’ retirement funds.
The Department of Labor sued Roetker in April in the U.S. District Court in Hammond, claiming that Roetker had withheld $8,489 from his employees’ paychecks in 2007 and 2008, money that was supposed to be put into their retirement funds. However, according to the lawsuit, he never made those deposits.
He also never responded to the federal lawsuit, so he was found in default earlier this month.
In addition to paying back the money taken, Roetker must also pay $10,193 in interest.
