1 investigator for every 12,000 plans: Employee-benefits scammers are on the loose and leaving workers in the lurch

When the U.S. Department of Labor filed a lawsuit against a Chicago-area employee benefit fund early this year, it alleged a litany of improper loans, transfers of fund assets, and unreasonable compensation had siphoned more than $2.8 million from the plan since 2015. But there was far more to the story than what the Labor Department outlined in its complaint. 

The United Employee Benefit Fund, the fund targeted in the lawsuit, provides life insurance to about 63 employer-sponsored benefit plans nationwide, according to regulators....