Judge orders company to repay employee profit-sharing plan

CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge in Chicago has ordered an Illinois company to repay more than $1.7 million raided from its employee profit-sharing plan.

The judgment requires Palos Hills-based Alliance Home Healthcare and two top officers to repay money that was improperly used. Alliance set up the plan in 2000 to provide retirement benefits to eligible employees.

The ruling issued Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve follows an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration.

The court appointed an independent company to distribute the plan's assets to participants and beneficiaries and to end the plan.

Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employee Benefits Security Phyllis Borzi says employee benefit plan funds are "too often" used illegally by management to "prop up struggling companies."