WASHINGTON -- A federal judge has tentatively approved a $7.6 million settlement that would compensate about 10,000 Visteon Corp. employees for losses in their 401(k) plans they claimed were caused by Visteon executives' bad decisions.

The class-action settlement covers 10,023 Visteon workers who participated in retirement plans between July 1, 2000, and July 15, 2006, that involved direct or indirect investments in Visteon stock. U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, who recently approved the tentative deal, set a March 9 hearing to hear any objections and grant final approval.

Lynn Sarko, a Seattle-based attorney who is the lead council for the employees, said the settlement is a "win-win-win."

The employees will split about $5 million after attorneys' fees and costs; they had suffered an estimated loss of about $12.3 million, Sarko said.

"People will be getting some real money," he said. "They want to move on with their lives. This is a very good settlement."

Last week, mailings detailing the settlement went out to employees and retirees involved in the lawsuit. The suit claimed that Visteon executives had violated the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act by violating fiduciary duties to prudently invest employees' funds.

Visteon made restricted matching contributions to 401(k) plans in Visteon stock, but, the suit claims, they failed to provide participants with complete and accurate information about the company's financial health.

Last July, Visteon sold all of the stock in its employee retirement plans and no longer offers it as an option.

Visteon spokesman Jim Fisher said the settlement was "determined to be in the best interest of the company and our stakeholders." Visteon, which did not admit wrongdoing, will fund the settlement through an insurance policy, Fisher said.

Lawyers for the employees said that when Visteon was spun-off from parent Ford Motor Co. in 2000, it was "ill-prepared to compete, saddled with significant risks and uncertainties and doomed to lose money."

The stock was $19.98 in July 2001; today it is trading at $7.83 a share, rebounding from a low of below $4 a share.

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