18 U.S.C. § 1954 — Offer, acceptance, or solicitation to influence operations of employee benefit plan

A person covered by one of the following categories who receives, agrees to receive, or asks for a fee, kickback, commission, gift, loan, money, or other “thing of value” because of, or intending to influence, an action, decision, or other duty about an employee benefit plan commits an offense. The same is true for a person who directly or indirectly gives, offers, or promises to give or offer such a “thing of value” when this section prohibits it.

(1) The person is an administrator, officer, trustee, custodian, counsel, agent, or employee of an “employee welfare benefit plan” or “employee pension benefit plan.” This section defines those terms below.

(2) The person is an officer, counsel, agent, or employee of an employer, or is an employer whose employees are covered by the plan.

(3) The person is an officer, counsel, agent, or employee of an “employee organization^*” whose members are covered by the plan. This section defines “employee organization” below.

(4) The person is a person who provides benefit plan services to the plan, or is an officer, counsel, agent, or employee of an organization that provides those services.

A person who commits this offense may be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than three years, or both. But this section does not prohibit paying or accepting “bona fide” salary, compensation, or other payments for goods or facilities actually furnished or services actually performed in the “regular course” of the person’s duties as a person, administrator, officer, trustee, custodian, counsel, agent, or employee of the plan, employer, employee organization, or organization providing benefit plan services to the plan.

As used in this section—

(a) “Any employee welfare benefit plan” or “employee pension benefit plan” means an employee welfare benefit plan or employee pension benefit plan, respectively, that is “subject to” any provision of title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

(b) “Employee organization” and “administrator” have the meanings assigned to those terms, respectively, in sections 3(4) and 3(16) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.

This section does not define “thing of value,” “bona fide,” “regular course,” “employer,” “employee,” “covered,” or “subject to.”