Members of wound-up pension ‘left with no money’

Some members of the wound up pension scheme of a company in the De Beers diamond manufacturing group have been left with no money and in great personal and financial distress, the Commercial Court heard yesterday.

Senior counsel Paul Sreenan was speaking on the opening day of a case on behalf of 124 members of the Shannon-based company Element Six Ltd, formerly De Beers Industrial Diamond Division (Ireland), over the firm’s closed defined benefits pension scheme, which has 800 members.

In a representative case brought on behalf of 124 members, they claim the scheme’s six trustees acted in breach of fiduciary duty by accepting a company offer to wind up the scheme on the basis of a contribution of around €35m from the company. This was at a time, it is claimed, when the scheme had a minimum funding standard deficit of some €129m, increasing to €184m to take account of what was required to provide for the plan’s liabilities.