(RNS) — A federal judge gave preliminary approval to a settlement that could restore tens of millions more in retirement funds to African Methodist Episcopal Church clergy and staffers who lost their money through the denomination’s allegedly mishandled plan.
The development on Friday (April 17) comes after the same judge last August approved $60 million in partial settlements, not including interest, for the thousands of clergy and staff who learned in 2021 that much of their expected retirement money was missing. However, legal fees totaled a third of the settlement.
The plaintiffs and Symetra Life Insurance Co., a defendant in the case, accepted a mediator’s proposal that would allow the affected retirement plan participants to recover an additional $44.4 million, if the judge approves it in a hearing set for Aug. 19 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
According to court documents, the plaintiffs alleged that Symetra was a co-conspirator with the Rev. Jerome Harris, then the director of the AME Church’s Department of Retirement Services, in misappropriation of the retirement funds.
“Taking the Symetra settlement with the other settlements already obtained to date, Plaintiffs will have recovered a total of approximately $106.2 million,” Judge S. Thomas Anderson said in his April 17 order. “In light of the risks of going to trial and the additional delay involved in trying the case and concluding all appeals, the settlement represents adequate …