August 6, 2025
Ryan Wheeler of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC has recovered millions of dollars for his clients in benefits cases, like one claiming that Citgo shorted retirees in pension payments, and another saying that an Illinois casino used an employee stock ownership plan to craft a shady company sale, earning him a spot among the benefits law practitioners under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
The biggest case of his career:
Wheeler served as the lead associate in a case claiming that Citgo shorted workers through their pension payments by using outdated mortality data to calculate their benefits, resulting in a $14 million settlement for his clients. He said the deal, finalized by an Illinois federal court in January, is one of the largest settlements secured in this relatively new area of law — cases challenging the use of antiquated mortality data began popping up in 2019, and none have yet gone to trial.
Wheeler said he and his team secured key wins in the case that ultimately led his clients to clinch a settlement by defeating most of Citgo’s arguments that attempted to derail the case on motions for summary judgment. He said the judge sided with his team’s argument that the statute of limitations should not be limited to a four-year window for a certain class of participants, allowing them to recover benefits dating to 1995.
“I think the reason we were able to get a really spectacular result like that was because Citgo didn’t have much of a defense,” Wheeler said, adding that the company had been using decades-old mortality data to actuarially determine how much retirees were owed.
“I think they saw the writing on the wall and didn’t want to take that to trial,” Wheeler said.
His most interesting recent case:
Wheeler pointed to a proposed class action claiming that Argent Trust Co. sold inflated shares of a barbecue chain to an employee stock ownership plan, allowing the owners to make off with millions in profit as well as tax benefits, while workers were shortchanged.
In January, the Second Circuit knocked down the wealth management company’s bid to reverse a lower court’s order denying arbitration in the case.
“This has been a really gratifying case, because our clients are folks who worked as wait staff for close to minimum wage, and they’re standing up in court for themselves against the former owners, who made off with almost $100 million,” Wheeler said.
Wheeler has successfully litigated other cases aiming to tamp down on abuse through an employee stock ownership plan. In February, a federal judge gave final approval to a $7.1 million deal resolving a class action claiming that Illinois’ Casino Queen created an ESOP so it could buy company stock at an inflated price of $170 million. A year later, in 2019, the value of the stock dropped 95%.