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On Wednesday, the Alabama House Judiciary Committee passed SB244, a bill introduced by state Sen. Tim Melson, R-District 1, which creates a criminal penalty for theft of employee retirement benefits.
Specifically, Melson’s bill establishes the crime of “aggravated theft of employee retirement benefits,” which is committed when an individual “embezzles, steals, or unlawfully and willfully abstracts or converts to his or her own use or to the use of another, any of the monies, funds, premiums, credits, or other assets due to be paid as contributions to any employee retirement benefit plan, or to any fund connected with an employee retirement benefit plan.”
Under the bill’s provisions, an “employee retirement benefit plan” includes, but is not limited to, any plan under the Retirement Systems of Alabama, including the Teachers’ Retirement System, the Employees’ Retirement System and the Judicial Retirement Fund.
Aggravated theft of employee retirement benefits would constitute a Class C felony, carrying a sentence of up to 10 years in prison with a fine of up to $15,000.
The bill also provides that a conviction for aggravated theft of employee retirement benefits be treated as a Class A or B felony for the purposes of determining probation, and that the maximum probation period “shall not exceed 10 years unless otherwise authorized by law.”
Additionally, SB244 sets a statute of limitations, requiring that the prosecution of theft of employee retirement benefits begin within six years of any such theft being discovered.
The House Judiciary Committee quickly passed Melson’s bill. SB244 will now go to the House floor and, if passed, will then go to the governor’s desk to be signed into law.
