The Department of Labor subpoenaed Tribune Co over an employee stock plan crucial to real estate mogul Sam Zell's buyout of the media company. The subpoena, which the Labor Department issued in March, asks for "an extensive range of documents" related to the newspaper publisher and broadcaster's employee stock ownership plan. The Labor Department's questions relate to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, a law designed to protect people who participate in employee retirement plans. The filing did not say what kinds of documents the government was seeking or what it planned to do with them. The stock ownership plan was an important piece of Zell's plan to take Tribune private in an $8.2 billion deal that involved $13 billion in debt. Some current and former Tribune employees sued last year over the ESOP, saying that Zell and Tribune have mismanaged the company.
