February 17, 2026
A certified class of participants in a barbecue company’s employee stock ownership program is seeking assurance that a $15 million settlement among the U.S. Department of Labor, the company’s executives and the ESOP’s caretaker won’t affect a coming trial on the matter.
The certified class in the W BBQ Holdings Inc. ESOP filed a letter Monday in its Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit requesting assurance from the court. The letter requests information about the DOL’s consent order and judgment in a different enforcement case, which the DOL separately docketed Friday. U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote signed off on the deal on Tuesday.
The DOL filed an enforcement case in December 2024 against Argent Trust Co. and Herbert Wetanson and Gregor Wetanson, the president and vice president of W BBQ Holdings Inc., aimed at the same $99 million private stock purchase by the ESOP in 2016 that the certified class targeted in 2022 with its suit. The consent judgment proposed Friday came after the DOL, Argent and the executives told the court Jan. 30 they’d reached a deal to end the case.
The class, which won certification in May, asked in its letter filed Monday for the court to confirm that the deal wouldn’t bar it from bringing claims in their dispute.
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The class is represented by Michelle C. Yau, Daniel R. Sutter, Caroline E. Bressman, Elizabeth McDermott, Michael Eisenkraft and Ryan A. Wheeler of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
Read BBQ Co. ESOP Members Urge Trial Despite DOL’s $15M Deal.