Feb. 22--Attorneys representing dozens of federal employees and their relatives are suing the federal government over retirement investments that were lost to Jacksonville Ponzi scheme operator Kenneth Wayne McLeod.

The suit seeking $120 million argues government agencies ignored obvious danger signs, and broke some of their own rules, when they contracted McLeod's company, Federal Employee Benefits Group, to run retirement-planning seminars that were used to recruit investors.

"The United States owed a duty" to its employees, the suit argues, and "in breaching that duty, affirmatively assisted McLeod's fraudulent scheme."

McLeod killed himself in 2010 as regulators were questioning his company's operations. His company focused on managing federal employees' investments and handled investments by workers in a string of states.

The suit, which was filed Tuesday, accuses about a dozen agencies of negligence for allowing McLeod and his company broad access to its employees.

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