$22.5M Dallas BBQ ESOP Settlement, Check If Your W BBQ Holdings Retirement Account Is Getting a Payment, Lloyd et al. v. Argent Trust Co., et al., No. 1:22-cv-04129-DLC

The Dallas BBQ ESOP settlement is a $22,500,000 class action resolution for current and former employees of Dallas BBQ restaurants who held vested shares in the W BBQ Holdings, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan between July 29, 2016 and December 31, 2025. The Class Representatives allege that in 2016, the Defendants violated ERISA in connection with the sale of the Dallas BBQ restaurant chain to the ESOP at an inflated price, and that Argent Trust Company, which served as the ESOP trustee for the transaction, breached its fiduciary duties. The case is Lloyd et al. v. Argent Trust Co., et al., No. 1:22-cv-04129-DLC, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. This is a mandatory, non-opt-out settlement — if you held vested Dallas BBQ ESOP shares during the class period, you will receive settlement benefits automatically. No claim form is required to participate, but if you want your payment rolled over into a qualified retirement account, you must return the rollover form by July 24, 2026.

Dallas BBQ ESOP ERISA Settlement — Key Facts

Field	Detail
Total Settlement Value	~$22,500,000 (Class Counsel’s conservative estimate)
Cash Component	$10,000,000 paid into escrow by Defendants
Loan Principal Forgiven	$12,000,000 — increases value of ESOP stock
Accrued Interest Forgiven	$9,700,000 — further increases ESOP stock value
Cash Per Share (Former Employees)	$24.70 per Dallas BBQ share cashed out at Dec. 31, 2025 price or earlier
Claim Form Required	No — benefits are automatic for all qualifying Class Members
Rollover Form Deadline	July 24, 2026 — required only if you want a retirement account rollover instead of a check
Opt-Out Option	None — this is a mandatory (non-opt-out) class action
Objection Deadline	July 24, 2026
Fairness Hearing	August 14, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern — Judge Denise Cote, S.D.N.Y.
Estimated Payment Date	On or before March 15, 2027 (if no appeals)
Settlement Status	Proposed — pending Final Approval
Court & Case Number	U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York — No. 1:22-cv-04129-DLC
Specific Law Alleged	Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) — fiduciary duty and prohibited transaction violations
Class Counsel	Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, PLLC
Settlement Administrator	Atticus Administration
Official Settlement Website	DallasBBQESOPSettlement.com
Last Updated	May 29, 2026

Where Does the Dallas BBQ ESOP Settlement Stand Today?

• The Court will hold a Fairness Hearing on August 14, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, before Judge Denise Cote in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, Courtroom 18B, New York, NY 10007.
• All court documents related to the motion for attorneys’ fees and reimbursement of expenses will be posted to DallasBBQESOPSettlement.com by July 6, 2026. The Independent Fiduciary’s written report will also be filed before the objection deadline.
• If no one appeals the Court’s approval of the Settlement, Class Members will receive the cash payments described on or before March 15, 2027.

Who Is Dallas BBQ and Why Are Their Employees Facing an ERISA Lawsuit?

Dallas BBQ is a restaurant dining chain in New York City, founded in 1978 by the Wetanson family. The chain has approximately 10 to 12 locations around the New York metropolitan area and is owned by multiple generations of Wetansons: Herbert, Greg, and Stuart Wetanson. The restaurants are known for rotisserie chicken, baby back ribs, and giant frozen margaritas — a New York City institution for affordable, high-volume dining.

Workers for W BBQ Holdings Inc. filed suit in 2022, accusing Argent and the Wetansons of violating federal benefits law and costing workers millions in retirement savings by letting them pay too much for their employer’s stock in a $99 million deal in 2016. The ESOP — meant to be a retirement savings benefit for Dallas BBQ staff — became the vehicle for a transaction that plaintiffs say shortchanged the very employees it was supposed to help.

What Did the Dallas BBQ Owners and Argent Trust Allegedly Do to ESOP Participants Between 2016 and 2025?

On May 20, 2022, Cohen Milstein filed Lloyd et al. v. Argent Trust Company, et al. on behalf of a class of participants and beneficiaries of the W BBQ Holdings, Inc. ESOP against the ESOP trustee, Argent Trust Company, and the owners of W BBQ Holdings.

Plaintiffs allege that the controlling members and shareholders of W BBQ Holdings and the trustee of the ESOP caused the ESOP to engage in transactions that are prohibited under ERISA and breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the sale of the company to the ESOP at a dramatically inflated price over fair market value. In plain terms: the people running Dallas BBQ allegedly sold the company to their own employees’ retirement plan at a price far above what the business was actually worth — meaning employees’ ESOP accounts were immediately worth less than what was paid for the stock. The ESOP trustee, Argent Trust Company, had the job of protecting employees’ interests in that deal and allegedly failed to do so.

The Class Representatives also allege that Gregor and Herbert Wetanson unlawfully gifted their proceeds from the ESOP Transaction to Wetanson-related trusts: the Gregor Wetanson 2015 Gift Trust and the BBQ Trust, and that the Board of Directors failed to properly monitor Argent and knew of each other’s breaches.

This type of ESOP case — where a company is sold to employees at an inflated price through a trustee who fails to protect plan participants — has become one of the most active areas of ERISA litigation. For context on how ERISA fiduciary duty cases work and what employees can recover, our coverage of Chase’s ERISA violations and retirement plan class actions explains the legal framework in plain English. The parallel to other ERISA plan mismanagement cases like those in the Rivian ERISA retirement plan action also shows how these cases typically unfold for employees.

The Department of Labor separately filed its own enforcement action in December 2024 against the same defendants for the same 2016 transaction. The DOL settlement provides for a cash payment of $1 million to the ESOP over an 18-month period from April 2026 to October 2027, and a $14 million reduction in the principal of the former owners’ Seller Notes. That separate DOL recovery is factored into the Plan of Allocation for this settlement.

Defendants deny that they violated any law or duty owed to the ESOP or its participants, and argue that the sale of Dallas BBQ to the ESOP was for fair market value and that the ESOP and its participants were not harmed by the ESOP Transaction. Both sides agreed to settle on the eve of trial. If you held vested Dallas BBQ ESOP shares between July 29, 2016 and December 31, 2025, this settlement directly affects your retirement savings.

Related article: $12.5M Aqua Illinois University Park Water Contamination Settlement, Check If You Qualify for a Payment, File Claim at class-settlement.com

Are You Part of the Dallas BBQ ESOP Class Action Settlement?

Here is exactly how to know whether this settlement covers you.

You are a Class Member if:

• You are a participant in the W BBQ Holdings, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan on or after July 29, 2016, who vested in whole or in part under the terms of the ESOP
• You are a beneficiary (including surviving spouse, alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order, or other legal representative) of such a participant
• You are a former Dallas BBQ employee whose ESOP shares were cashed out at any point during the class period
• You are a current Dallas BBQ employee with vested ESOP shares as of December 31, 2025

You are NOT a Class Member if:

• You are a Defendant in this case, an immediate family member of a Defendant, a fiduciary of the ESOP, or a current or former officer or director of W BBQ Holdings.

Dallas BBQ ESOP Participants Outside New York — Are You Still Covered?

Yes. This case was filed in the Southern District of New York because that is where the company is based, but the class definition is not limited by geography. Class Members are all participants in the W BBQ Holdings, Inc. Employee Stock Ownership Plan on or after July 29, 2016 who vested in whole or in part under the terms of the ESOP, and those participants’ beneficiaries. If you formerly worked at any Dallas BBQ location and had vested ESOP shares, you are covered wherever you currently live.

If you have questions about whether your specific ESOP account qualifies or how your benefit will be calculated, a free consultation with an investment loss claims attorney experienced in ERISA can help you review your account before the July 24, 2026 objection and rollover deadline.

How Much Will Dallas BBQ ESOP Settlement Class Members Receive?

The settlement provides three distinct types of value to class members. How much you personally receive depends on whether you still hold shares in your ESOP account or whether you already cashed them out.

If you are a former Dallas BBQ employee who already cashed out your ESOP shares:

Class Members will receive $24.70 for every share of Dallas BBQ stock that they cashed out based on a share price of December 31, 2025 or earlier. You will also receive a cash payment from the $10 million cash escrow — a pro rata share based on the Plan of Allocation — and five equal annual distributions from your ESOP account beginning the year after the Settlement becomes final.

If you are a current Dallas BBQ employee with ESOP shares:

You will receive a cash payment from the $10 million cash escrow for your pro rata share, plus an increase in the value of your Dallas BBQ stock from the $12 million loan principal forgiveness and $9.7 million accrued interest forgiveness — both of which directly increase the per-share value of the stock in your account.

Understanding the $22.5 million total:

Class Counsel conservatively estimate that the total value of the Settlement consideration is approximately $22.5 million, composed of the $10 million cash payment, the $12 million loan principal forgiveness, and the $9.7 million accrued interest forgiveness. The loan forgiveness components do not pay cash directly — they increase the book value of the ESOP stock that current employees and participants with remaining shares still hold.

What gets deducted from the $10 million cash component:

Class Counsel will apply to the Court for attorneys’ fees of up to $6,200,000 and reimbursement of litigation expenses of up to $850,000. Each Class Representative will seek a service award of $25,000. All of these deductions come from the $10 million cash escrow. The amount remaining after those deductions is what gets distributed to class members as individual cash payments.

All amounts are subject to the Plan of Allocation and to pro-rata adjustment. Check DallasBBQESOPSettlement.com for the full Plan of Allocation document.

What Could Dallas BBQ ESOP Participants Have Recovered at Trial?

Both sides agreed to settle on the eve of trial. The Class Representatives and Class Counsel believe that if the case had continued and the class lost — or was unable to collect a monetary judgment — Class Members could have received nothing at all. The $22.5 million settlement was negotiated as the certain recovery against the risk of going to trial.

What Should Dallas BBQ ESOP Participants Do Right Now?

1. Do nothing if you want your benefits by check. If you do nothing and the Court approves the Settlement, you will automatically receive the Settlement benefits. You do not need to file a claim form.
   
2. Complete the rollover form by July 24, 2026 if you want a retirement account transfer. If you would prefer to receive your Settlement payment through a rollover to a qualified retirement account, you must complete, sign, and return the rollover form online at DallasBBQESOPSettlement.com or by mail, postmarked by July 24, 2026. If you skip this step, your payment arrives as a paper check — which may have different tax treatment than a direct rollover to an IRA or other qualified plan.
   
3. Update your address with the Settlement Administrator immediately. Your cash payment will be sent via check to the address the Settlement Administrator has on file for you. You may update your contact information by email at [email protected], by telephone at 1-800-793-1019, or by U.S. Mail to Dallas BBQ ESOP Settlement, c/o Atticus Administration, PO Box 64053, St. Paul, MN 55164. If your address is wrong, your check will not reach you.
   
4. Review the Plan of Allocation at DallasBBQESOPSettlement.com to understand exactly how your individual payment is calculated based on your share count and vesting dates.
   
5. File an objection by July 24, 2026 if you believe the settlement terms are unfair. You can object to the settlement itself or to the requested attorneys’ fees — see the objection section below.
   
6. Consult a tax professional before selecting a rollover vs. check payment. ESOP distributions can have complex tax consequences. A direct rollover to a qualified retirement account avoids immediate income tax and potential early withdrawal penalties. A check payment may be treated as a taxable distribution. This is not legal or tax advice — get specific guidance before making your election.

Can Dallas BBQ ESOP Class Members Object Before July 24, 2026?

This Settlement was preliminarily approved as a mandatory (“non-opt-out”) class action, so you cannot exclude yourself from the Class or the benefits of the Settlement. However, you can tell the court you disagree with the settlement terms or the requested attorneys’ fees.

Your objection must be filed with the Court and submitted to the Settlement Administrator on or before July 24, 2026. It must include: the case name and number (Lloyd, et al. v. Argent Trust Co., et al., No. 1:22-cv-4129-DLC-SDA); your name, address, and telephone number; an explanation of what you do not like about the Settlement and why; and whether you and/or your lawyer will attend the Fairness Hearing. Mail objections to Dallas BBQ ESOP Settlement c/o Atticus Administration, PO Box 64053, St. Paul, MN 55164, or email [email protected].

If you are considering objecting to the settlement terms, speaking with a class action lawsuit attorney before July 24, 2026 is strongly recommended.

Dallas BBQ ESOP ERISA Lawsuit Timeline

Milestone	Date
Dallas BBQ sold to ESOP — alleged inflated transaction ($99M)	July 29, 2016
Class period begins	July 29, 2016
Lloyd et al. v. Argent Trust Co. filed in S.D.N.Y.	May 20, 2022
Defendants answer Plaintiffs’ First Amended Complaint	January 6, 2023
Second Circuit affirms denial of Argent’s arbitration motion	January 3, 2025
Class certified by Court	May 2025
DOL files separate enforcement action against same defendants	December 2024
DOL reaches $15M consent order with defendants	February 2026
Parties reach agreement in principle to settle class action — eve of trial	March 10, 2026
Class period ends	December 31, 2025
Court-approved class notice issued	May 6, 2026
Attorneys’ fees motion posted on settlement website	July 6, 2026
Rollover form and objection deadline	July 24, 2026
Fairness Hearing before Judge Denise Cote	August 14, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET
Estimated cash payment to Class Members	On or before March 15, 2027

Dallas BBQ ESOP ERISA Settlement — Frequently Asked Questions, No. 1:22-cv-04129-DLC

Is there a class action settlement against Dallas BBQ and Argent Trust for ERISA violations?

 Yes. A proposed $22.5 million settlement has been reached in Lloyd et al. v. Argent Trust Co., et al., No. 1:22-cv-04129-DLC in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Fairness Hearing is August 14, 2026 before Judge Denise Cote.

Do I need to file a claim form to receive my Dallas BBQ ESOP settlement payment? 

No. If you do nothing and the Court approves the Settlement, you will automatically receive the Settlement benefits. No claim form is required. You only need to act if you want to receive your payment as a rollover to a qualified retirement account — that requires returning the rollover form by July 24, 2026.

Can I opt out of the Dallas BBQ ESOP settlement?

 No. Because this Settlement was preliminarily approved as a mandatory (“non-opt-out”) class action, you cannot exclude yourself from the Class or the benefits of the Settlement. You are bound by the settlement whether you like it or not — but you can file an objection by July 24, 2026.

How much will I receive from the Dallas BBQ ESOP settlement? 

Class Members who cashed out shares will receive $24.70 per share plus a pro rata share of the $10 million cash payment, less attorneys’ fees, expenses, and service awards. Current employees receive the cash pro rata payment plus an increase in the per-share value of their ESOP stock from $21.7 million in combined loan principal and accrued interest forgiveness.

What specific laws did Dallas BBQ and Argent Trust allegedly violate?

 The Class Representatives allege that the Defendants violated ERISA — the Employee Retirement Income Security Act — by breaching their fiduciary duties to the ESOP in connection with the 2016 sale of the Dallas BBQ restaurant chain to the ESOP at an inflated price, and that the Board of Directors failed to properly monitor Argent and knew of each other’s breaches.

When will Dallas BBQ ESOP settlement payments be sent?

 If no one appeals the Court’s approval of the Settlement, Class Members will receive cash payments on or before March 15, 2027. ESOP stock value increases will be determined in 2027, and distributions from ESOP shares will begin the year after the Settlement is approved and final.

Should I take a check or do a rollover from the Dallas BBQ ESOP settlement? 

A direct rollover to an IRA or qualified retirement account can avoid immediate income tax and potential early withdrawal penalties on the distribution. A check payment may trigger taxes in the year received. Consult a tax professional before making this election — the rollover form deadline is July 24, 2026 and cannot be extended.

How will the Department of Labor settlement affect my Dallas BBQ ESOP payment?

 The DOL settlement provides a $1 million cash payment to the ESOP allocated to current employees who work at least 1,000 hours in 2026 or 2027. Class Members who no longer work at Dallas BBQ will not receive any of the DOL settlement cash allocation. The Plan of Allocation in this Settlement includes a partial offset of 60% of the DOL cash allocations for currently employed Class Members.

Sources Used in This Dallas BBQ ESOP ERISA Settlement Article

• Court-Approved Class Notice, Lloyd et al. v. Argent Trust Co., et al., No. 1:22-cv-04129-DLC (S.D.N.Y.), May 6, 2026: DallasBBQESOPSettlement.com
• Official Settlement Website — Atticus Administration: DallasBBQESOPSettlement.com

Prepared by the AllAboutLawyer.com Editorial Team and reviewed for factual accuracy against the Court-Approved Class Notice filed May 6, 2026 in Lloyd et al. v. Argent Trust Co., et al., No. 1:22-cv-04129-DLC (U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York), the official settlement website (DallasBBQESOPSettlement.com), and Cohen Milstein’s public case filings. Last Updated: May 29, 2026.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Laws vary by state and individual circumstances differ. For advice about your specific situation, including the tax treatment of ESOP distributions, consult a qualified attorney and/or tax professional.