NEW YORK (AP) — Five retired umpires have sued their retirement plan from their work for Major League Baseball and the plan's retirement committee, alleging they are owed additional money.
Joe West, Tom Hallion, Gerry Davis, Larry Vanover and Jerry Layne filed the lawsuit on Sept. 29 in federal court in New York.
They claimed their benefits were not correctly calculated and alleged they should receive additional money under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. Their lawyer, Paul B. Holmes, said Thursday the amount owed the five is in excess of $2 million.
West said that when he brought up the issue to the retirement committee, he was offered a relatively small sum. West said MLB senior vice president and chief employment counsel Steven Gonzalez told him: “If you don't like the number, sue us.”
“Does Steve Gonzalez not know my history with dealing with lawsuits?” West said.
West, who worked a record 5,460 regular-season games from 1976-2021, was awarded $500,000 in damages in 2021 for a defamation suit against former All-Star catcher Paul LoDuca.
MLB declined comment Wednesday, citing the pending lawsuit. The suit was first reported by USA Today.
West and Davis retired after the 2021 season, Hallion after 2022, and Layne and Vanover at the end of 2024. The suit was filed against the American Leagues and National Leagues of Professional Baseball Clubs Retirement Income Plan for Umpires and that entity's retirement committee.
“In some of the issues you could argue it both ways, but in a couple of the issues it was pretty clear that they were just shorting the umpires,” Holmes said. “And so we went through the process and we went through settlement talks. I think these guys were willing to take something less than 100% of what we thought they were entitled to just to avoid litigation and be done with it, but MLB’s offers were not very competitive.”
These umpires sued as individuals. The Major League Baseball Umpires Association is not a party.
“The union wanted to stay out of it,” Holmes said. “It's not a big union and they're not pension experts.”
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams scheduled a pretrial conference for Dec. 11.
See AP’s full MLB coverage here
FILE - Home plate umpire Joe West works during the first inning of a baseball game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Toronto Blue Jays Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguayan President Santiago Peña announced his resignation Thursday after the collapse of a major digital bank tied to his government triggered widespread protests, froze millions of people’s savings and cost him the support of his own party.
The crisis at Ueno Bank turned Peña’s long-ruling Colorado Party against him, a stunning reversal for the former International Monetary Fund economist who had enjoyed the backing of the country's most powerful politicians and was welcomed in Washington just weeks ago as a key ally of the Trump administration.
Minutes after Peña’s announcement, the lower house voted 78-0 to impeach him, sending the charges to the Senate. Congressional leaders were voting on whether to accept his resignation later Thursday, clearing the way for Vice President Pedro Alliana to be sworn in without waiting for a Senate trial.
Opposition senators were still demanding a trial, arguing that allowing Peña to resign would preserve his eligibility to become a senator for life, with legal protections that could prevent his prosecution.
Peña said in a video posted to X that he was stepping down in the interest of “the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions.”
Even Peña’s mentor, Colorado Party leader and former President Horacio Cartes, backed impeachment, saying the party would not side with “the plundering of public and private funds and pensioners’ money.” The United States Treasury sanctioned Cartes in 2023 over bribery allegations that the Trump administration lifted last year.
Peña, who until last year held a stake in a company linked to Ueno, expressed contrition. But he stopped short of accepting responsibility for the turmoil, which has left millions of depositors, retirees and workers scrambling to recoup their frozen savings and unpaid wages.
“I want to apologize to the people if I have failed them at any point,” he said. “It was never my intention to betray the trust they placed in me."
Ueno Bank, which exploded from an obscure finance company to a household name in less than five years, claimed more than 60% of Paraguay’s adults as customers. Many Paraguayans are left asking how a bank linked to the president could grow so rapidly in size and importance despite repeated warnings about its lending practices.
The answer lies in the uncomfortable proximity of Peña’s Colorado Party to the country’s regulators and business elite, a weakness that has endured even as steady economic management and rapid growth recently earned Paraguay coveted investment-grade credit ratings.
“Santiago Peña and the Colorado Party have stolen all our savings,” said Luis Pineda, one of the protesters marching to Congress on Wednesday. “We are fed up with 70 years of plunder.”
Soon after winning its banking license in 2023, Ueno seemed to be everywhere in Paraguay. The digital lender, a rebranded version of a decades-old finance company, lured customers with generous cash-back offers on groceries as it grew to more than 70 locations, sponsored Paraguay's national soccer team and plastered its name on the country's main stadium.
Government money poured into Ueno’s coffers under Peña. He also appointed Carlos Carvallo, president of Financiera Ueno, the predecessor to Ueno Bank, to run the central bank, the agency charged with supervising the digital lender.
As of last month, Ueno reported holding roughly $800 million in public deposits, about a quarter of its total, including money from the state pension and health fund and the operators of Paraguay’s giant hydroelectric dams.
But worries were escalating inside the central bank. In June, its inspectors found a pattern of risky lending to insiders, reported ABC Color, a leading Paraguayan newspaper. Ueno had extended large sums to companies tied to its owners, beyond what the law allows and without enough collateral to cover the debts if they went bad.
As recently as last month, Peña defended Ueno and the central bank’s oversight, dismissing the concerns as a smear campaign that was spooking the public.
But on Monday, it all came crashing down. Regulators investigating Ueno’s loans to companies linked to its owners found poorly documented lending, the central bank said, as well as expenses the bank had wrongly counted as assets.
Once the books were corrected, Ueno’s capital, the cushion banks must keep to absorb losses, fell to less than half the legal minimum. The central bank announced the lender’s seizure Tuesday, beginning a process to transfer deposits and recoverable assets to other banks before liquidating what remained.
Ueno’s app, cards and transfers went dark and its branches locked their doors, leaving desperate depositors lined up outside. On Wednesday, a rush to open new accounts elsewhere crashed other banks’ mobile apps, fueling public panic.
Officials have appealed for calm. Under a law rushed through Congress on Wednesday, a state guarantee fund must repay stranded depositors within five business days, starting Thursday with small accounts of up to about $1,600. The fund insures up to about $36,000 per customer, which the central bank says will cover the full balances of an estimated 97% of clients.
On Thursday, a judge ordered six Ueno executives, including founder Miguel Vázquez and bank President Juan Manuel Gustale, jailed pending trial and two others placed under house arrest. Prosecutors have charged 27 bank officials and associates with breach of trust and attempted fraud.
Gustale’s lawyer pushed back on the charges, arguing that senior executives had relied on staff for lending decisions. “The president or board is not responsible for deciding who receives a particular loan,” José Fernández Zacur told local media.
Still in their Ueno uniforms, young employees burned their credit cards and cursed Peña outside the Labor Ministry on Thursday, demanding severance and unpaid wages. Peña’s resignation did little to calm them.
“Let the impeachment process take place and let him lose his immunity,” said Adolfo Villalba, one of the protesters on Thursday.
The Labor Ministry estimates the collapse has affected about 7,000 direct and indirect jobs at the bank and its related businesses.
Many saw Ueno’s collapse as a case study in official corruption. Only Venezuela ranks worse in South America on Transparency International’s latest index of perceived corruption.
“This is yet another assault on honest, hard-working citizens, people whose small savings are the fruit of years of labor,” said Belarmino Balbuena, one of thousands who marched on Congress in the capital, Asunción, on Wednesday.
Jorge Sáenz contributed to this story. DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.
People protest in front of police against the government and Ueno Bank, which Paraguay's central bank seized amid a solvency crisis, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Deputy Carlos Pereira speaks during a discussion on the impeachment of President Santiago Peña in Paraguay's lower house of Congress, as banners reading "Impeachment Now" are displayed on opposition lawmakers' desks in Asuncion, Paraguay, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
FILE - Paraguay President Santiago Peña speaks to the media at United Nations headquarters, Sept. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
People protest in front of police against the government and Ueno Bank, which Paraguay's central bank seized amid a solvency crisis, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
A demonstrator holds a mock U.S. dollar bill depicting Paraguayan President Santiago Peña during a protest against the government and Ueno Bank, which Paraguay's central bank seized amid a solvency crisis, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
People protest against the government and Ueno bank, which Paraguay's central bank has seized amid a solvency crisis in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
People protest against the government and Ueno bank, which Paraguay's central bank has seized amid a solvency crisis in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Executives of Ueno Bank, taken over by Paraguay's central bank amid a solvency crisis, arrive in custody at the anti-corruption prosecutor's office in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
People protest against the government and Ueno bank, which Paraguay's central bank has seized amid a solvency crisis, in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
Executives of Ueno Bank, taken over by Paraguay's central bank amid a solvency crisis, arrive in custody at the anti-corruption prosecutor's office in Asuncion, Paraguay, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026 (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)
