US safeguards agreed to for teamster pension fund

The government has entered into a consent decree with the Teamsters Union's scandal-scarred Central States Pension Fund, imposing safeguards to protect the fund's more than $3.5 billion assets, Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan said.

The safeguards require that an independent, professional asset manager control fund operations and that strict controls be placed on funds used by the trustees to pay benefits and administrative expenses. There have been widespread allegations in the past that the funds were mismanaged, with millions of dollars squandered.