Suit alleges Home Depot wrongdoing

A suit filed in federal court against Home Depot charges that the hardware giant permitted mismanagement of retirement funds affecting more than 200,000 people and costing their accounts at least $140 million.

The complaint against the $100 billion-a-year, Atlanta-based company was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Atlanta by attorneys for Jaime Pizarro and Craig Smith. But the plaintiffs aim for class action status, which would mean inclusion of every employee and former employee affected.

The key allegations involve investments chosen for $6.5 billion in the Home Depot pool that provides retirement payments to former employees. The plaintiffs argue that those investments, which are supposed to keep those savings growing as robustly as possible, have instead been consistently placed with funds that do not perform well.

The result is a retirement pool that doesn’t grow the way it should, said Charles Field, a San Diego-based partner in the firm of Sanford, Heisler, Sharp. “They see the market is up 40 or 50 percent and they look at their 401(k) and see that it is not up as much or maybe it’s even down and they think: What is going on here?”

Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes declined to comment on the substance or specifics of the allegations, limiting the official response to a general endorsement of the company’s retirement plans.

“We’re proud of the financial support and the opportunity for